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Without further ado:

Thenamesh Tomb Raider AU

(Thena is a freelancer who retrieves historical artifacts outside of the usual archaeological duties, although sometimes this conflicts with fellow freelancer - but in no way ally - Gilgamesh) 

Second // First

Thenamesh Vow AU

(Thena suffers an episode which makes her forget the last five years of her life, including her marriage to and even meeting her very sweet husband Gilgamesh)

Elephant in the Room // For Better or Worse // Second First Date // Reminiscing // In Sickness and In Health

Thenamesh Addams Family AU

(Thena meets Gilgamesh, the son of a respected and affluent family, but at least he seems much more pleasant company than their equally dry parents)

Love Stories // Beautiful Weather // The Lee Family

Thenamesh Hamptons AU

(Gil is the private chef for Thena, a reclusive heiress of old money who lives in the Hamptons, and seems really sweet even if she’s only ever said a few words)

Monster’s Ball // Worth its Weight in Gold

Thenamesh Reverse AU

(In a reversal of roles, Gilgamesh is cold and frightening to most, but for the quiet but beloved Warrior Eternal, he’s nothing but soft and warm)

Sunshine // Reversed

Thenamesh Inmate AU

(Thena is an inmate in a women’s correctional facility, where Gil works as a guard and is quite sure there’s more to her than meets the eye)

Safe and Sound // Fair Trade

Thenamesh Cook and Critic AU

(Gil is in the cooking track at a culinary institute which also offers studies such as molecular gastronomy and review for critique, which is how he meets Thena, the critique student with a perfect palette and no personal skills)

The Main Course // Amuse Bouche

Thenamesh 10 Things (I Hate About You) AU

(Sersi is forbidden from dating unless her shrewish sister Thena accompanies her, which Dane accepts with the help of reputational bad-boy Gilgamesh)

Out of the Shadows // Young Love(18+) // To Have and to Hold(18+) // A House Divided // Wherefore Art Thou // Star Crossed // Much Ado // A Midsummer Night

Thenamesh Hunger Games AU

(Gil volunteers for his brother Phastos back home in District 4, and meets Thena, a frighteningly competent but oddly helpful girl from District 2 who volunteered for her younger brother Druig)

In The Wild // In Preparation

Olympia AU

(Sersi uses the unimind energy to bring Gilgamesh back to life, and this ends up with Thena becoming pregnant, but the two aren’t alone in raising their young Eternal)

New Star // Olympia

Thenamesh President AU

(Thena has come into office of the presidency following Ikari’s deposition, with the most key support of her personal assistant, Gilgamesh)

Long Distance Relations // Diplomacy // In Private // Protection Detail // Small Reprieve // Behind Closed Doors

Thenamesh Wildfire AU

(based on Those Who Wish Me Dead, Thena is a wildfire fighter who used to do search and rescue, but has sequestered herself to perimeter patrol, where she runs into fellow forest fire fighter Gil)

[Coup de Foudre] // Enclosed // Key // Safe // Slip Up // Sanctuary // Sparks

Thenamesh Circus AU

(based on Water for Elephants, Thena is a star trapeze artist for a travelling circus, married to ring leader Kro, but undeniably fond of the new veterinarian, Gilgamesh)

Snapped // Out of Sight // Just Out of Reach // Just Us // From Afar // [Just Us]

Thenamesh Gladiator AU

(Gil is a gladiator who fights for Queen Ajak and Princess Thena, who - against all odds - has actually spoken to, and maybe even become fond of, him)

Peace // The War // The Battle // Declaration of War // Tournament Rules // [Declaration of War]

Thenamesh Human AU

(Gil gets weakened to a human status by a Deviant attack, leaving the rest of the Eternals - especially Thena - to protect the Strongest Eternal)

Shattered // Paper Skin // Glass Bones

Thenamesh Dressage AU

(Thena is a champion equestrian and competitive rider of Olympia, whose new caretaker Gilgamesh gets along with the stubborn mare surprisingly well)

Guy Talk // Friends...? // Stallion // High and Mighty // Bales // [Friends...?] // Escaped // Hanging Out // Too Nice

Thenamesh Photographer AU

(Gil is a freelance photographer who has come to work with Thena on various modelling contracts--enough that she’s come to maybe like his company)

Comfy // Three is a Crowd // Natural

Thenamesh Mermaid AU

(Thena is a mermaid who one day saves Gil the fisherman after falling into the water, and they only become closer from there)

Not Today Poseidon // Yearning(18+) // The Morning After // Feeling pt 2(18+) // Expressing pt 1(18+) // Green Around the Gills // Touching(18+) // Not Sharing // Sharing // Forbidden Treasure pt 3 // Forbidden Treasure pt 2 // Forbidden Treasure pt 1 // Home // Protective // Safe // Cuddlefish // Catch and Release // More Human // A Gift // Beautiful

Teach Me to Love AU

(based in this work from Ao3 called Teach Me to Love, in which Thena is a single mother to Druig, whose teacher is Gilgamesh; this has become popular to ask for drabbles on this platform, and thus gets its own section)

Butterflies // Consequences // Tiny Terror // Team Effort // Personal Space // Quiet Night In(18+) // Parent Day // [Personal Space] // Overheard // Bad Dreams // Mister Dad //  Teach Me to Love Again(18+) // Home Sick // Visitation Rights

Thenamesh Hanahaki AU

(Hanahaki is a disease in which love will form in the body as flowers, which can worsen until fatal if gone unrequited or even unspoken)

First Bud // Dying Roses // [First Bud]

Thenamesh Doctor AU

(Thena is a doctor who runs the ER, and is the unofficially official work-wife of Gil, one of the best and certainly the most popular paramedic there)

The Little Things // On Break(18+) // Up Close and Personal(18+) // Search and Rescue // Too Little Too Late // Thanks for the Save // [Up Close and Personal] // 5+1 This Time // Grieving Spouses // Revisiting(18+) // Interrupted(18+) // Red Roses for Love // Dreams // Love // Late Lunch // Ongoing Treatment // Wife Talk // Dropped // If You What // Trapped // A Doctor In the Making // Jealous // Hovering // Threat // Dozing Off // Adrenaline // Dream Team // If Only

Thenamesh Special Forces AU

(Thena is the head of a team of agents, although Kingo is keenly aware that she and Gil feel more strongly about each other than commander and agent)

A Little Help // After the Fight // Fighting for Love pt 4 // Fighting for Love pt 3 // Fighting for Love pt 2 // Fighting for Love pt 1 // Transfer // Guard Dog // First Impressions // Cover Blown // Fall Back // Staying Late // And He Did // Come Back // [A Little Help] //  [First Impressions]

Thenamesh Runaway Bride AU

(Thena is a princess who has run away from her arranged marriage to Prince Eros and found Gil, the very sweet and kind lumberjack who takes her in)

New(18+) // Anniversary Night(18+) // Ruined Celebration // Returning to the Scene // Bedridden // Budding Love // Blueberries // Ran

Thenamesh Bodyguard AU

(Gil is the private bodyguard for the very famous and popular singer, Thena)

Dreams // Cuts the Deepest // Silent Admiration // Sounds of Comfort // Where Is He // Trust Goes Both Ways // Caught in 4K // 5+1 Protection // Duet // Date // Slipped // Contract Negotiation // Sounds of Breakfast // Altercation // Trust // Recovery // Stage Rush // Live // Ambush // Cover // [Live]

Thenamesh Pokemon AU

(Thena is a professional Ace Trainer who works in Victory Road for the League; one day Gil - her best friend and a Pokemon Ranger - rescues a Teddiursa in need of a home)

Antidote // [PSN Heal] // Joining the Flock // [Antidote] // Gil Was Hurt by Poison // First Encounter // Take your Kid to Work Day // 5+1 Interruptions (18+) // Rich Boy Eros Wants to Battle // Just Ask // A Great Fall // Something In the Water // Paldea // Calling In Sick // Accident // Rescue // Poachers // First Checkup // Teddiursa // [First Encounter]

Thenamesh Beauty and the Beast AU

(Gil gets dragged into going up the mountain to look for the cursed beast said to roam around the abandoned castle grounds, unrelated to the missing Princess)

The Eye of the Storm // Search and Rescue // Searching for More // Something in the Mountains

Thenamesh Goalie AU

(Gil is a goalie on the high school hockey team who meets Thena the figure skater in between their practices)

No Practice // Rough Practice

Thenamesh Ghost Files AU

(Gil is an amateur ghost hunter, and an avid believer despite his fear, while Thena joins him whether she believes in ghosts or not; conceived with Taran)

Lying // Forward // Be Still, My Beating Heart

Thenamesh Maleficent AU

(Thena and her brothers Ikaris and Druig visit a larger nest from some southern islands; Gil is a nest guard entrusted with guiding and protecting the visitors)

Lookalike // Nesting // Preening // Healing // Trinket // Rescue // Morning // Exchange

Thenamesh Rus AU

(I headcanon that the Eternals were in Kievan-Rus for a time, during which Thena was the war advisor to Saint Olga)

Doomed to Fail // Yours // Warming Comfort // If It Were You // Wounded Pride // She’ll Live // [Warming Comfort] // Soft Water // Warming Up // [Yours] // [She’ll Live]

Thenamesh Ballerina/Boxer AU

(Thena is a ballerina who teaches classes with Sersi across the hall from Gil and his boxing studio)

Fallen // Holding Back(18+) // Life Imitates Art(18+) // Morning Stretching(18+) // Same Territory Different Angle // Territory // Swan Fight // Night Out // Locker Room(18+) // Friendly Match // [Wandering Eyes] // Friendly Fire // Kiss // Performance // The Swan

Ice Queen/Tyrant King AU

(Thena and Gil are rival mob bosses in the same city; Gil is a gangster who runs Koreatown and everything therein, while Thena controls the diamond industry)

Retaliation // Matching // Lovers’ Quarrel(18+) // 5+1 The Little Things // Meetings // Boyfriend Stuff // Family Visit // Engaged(18+) // Proposal pt 3 // Proposal pt 2 // Proposal pt 1 // Frisky(18+) // Rings // Home Again // [Neglected] // Tell Me // Physiotherapy // [Tell Me] // Shots Fired pt 2 // Shots Fired pt 1 // Standing Up // Lying Down // Tied(18+) // Skating // Lost // [Boyfriend Stuff] // Target Practice // Lunch // Reconciliation(18+) // Committed pt 3 // Committed pt 2 // Committed pt 1 // [Meetings] // Targets // [Target Practice] // Poisoned // [Pillow Talk] // [Office Talk] // Dates // It’s Fine // [Business Casual] // Resolution(18+) // Tension

Thenamesh Life Interrupted AU

(based on the prompt of Girl Interrupted, Thena is a patient in a psych ward, where Gil works in the cafeteria)

New Perspective // Unfamiliar Territory // Getting Better // Bad Day // Outside // Hiding

Thenamesh Receptionist AU

(Thena works as the personal receptionist for Gil, who runs a ‘shipping’ business, but is actually a mafia leader)

Best Served Cold(18+) // Above the Table(18+) // Under the Table(18+) // Free(18+) // Cells // Sundubu Jjigae // Meeting Gone Violent // Shopping // Party // Meeting Gone Wrong // Back in the Office(18+) // Wounded // Sick Day // London(18+) // [Shopping] // Kidnapped // [Sundubu Jjigae]

Thenamesh Actors AU

(Thena and Gil are both professional actors; Gil is famous for doing his own stunts, Thena’s sister Sprite is a big fan of his)

Falling Harder // Sexiest Man Alive // Rubbing It In // Old Wounds // The Big Speech // Too Early for This // (No) Competition // Bewitched // Encouragement // Working Up a Sweat // Never Again // Late Dinner // Red Carpet // He and She // On His Arm // He’s Done // High Score // The Skittles Diet // Salad // Eros’ Panel // Rehearsal // Conference // Movie Night // Sling // Stunt Fall // Paparazzi // Interview // Finally Meeting

Thenamesh Proposal AU

(Thena and Gil have worked together for some time, but when Gil wants trick his father into thinking he’s engaged, he asks Thena for help, and things only get more out of hand from there)

Just Five More Minutes // Just the Dishes // Just One Dance // Just a Snack // The Decaffeinated One // The Beach One // One Bed // The One // Dress Fitting // [One Bed]

Thenamesh Zombie AU

(Thena finds Gil at the end of the world and they decide to stick together)

Candlelit // If Anything Happens // More Than Just Us // Good In the World // 5+1 Injuries // Later // Safe to Sleep // Shed Tears // A Little Help // First Leaving // Train // [First Leaving]

Thenamesh College AU

(Gil and Thena meet through Kingo)

Halloween // First Sight

Thenamesh Spy AU

(all agents have partners, although Thena and Gil might be closer than most)

Relief(18+) // Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing // Rescue Mission // Eyes Elsewhere(18+) // Eyes on Her // Eyes on Target // Extrication

Jack and Thenamesh

(I would consider this somewhere within their canon but not strictly adhering to the rules of the film)

Family Valentines // Day Off // Multigenerational // Confused // Fathers’ Day // Party Guests of Honour // Home Alone // Dog Park // Family Christmas // Bake Sale // Talent Show // Trick or Treating // Prizes // Episode pt 2 // Episode pt 1 // Pick Up // Soccer // Natural

Thenamesh

(I consider these close enough to what we know of the canon to be part of that particular timeline - although not necessarily connected to each other - and dynamic, including Babylon, Australia, Tenochtitlan, etc. I will include things during and close enough to the movie’s timeline, and not things potentially taking place much further from that)

Sleeprunning // Promise of Paradise // Stars // Healing // Warmth // The Sun in Babylon // Three Days Later // Instinct // Be Mine // Out of the House // Comfort // You, Here, This // Aftermath // Hurt // First and Harder // The Bath Halls // Gil’s Nightmare // Woken Up // Nightmare // On the Beach // Drunk // Unwelcome Advances // Sleepwalking // Overly Affectionate // By the River

Thenamesh AU

(every au has this tag, although as soon as it gains a second installment it loses it and becomes part of that running au; anything from slightly outside of the movie’s canon to completely separate ideas)

My Kingdom for a Heart AU // Far Out in the Australian Desert // Bittersweet // Enemies to Lovers // Human and Eternal // The Last of Us Remaining // Academic Tension // Unbearable Love // Last Christmas (This Year) // Curve the Bullet // Sorry to Keep You Waiting // The Tourist // Jujutsu Kaisen AU // Cake // Unspoken // Runaway Love // Camp Counselling // Scream // My First and Only AU // The Tube // Young Babylon // Mind Control // Onions // Only the Mahdness // Socrates // Isn’t it? // This is Him // Mr. And Mrs. Lee 2.0 AU // His Recipe // Passing Notes AU // Intervening // Dane Meets History // Hit a Nerve // Given Enough // Family Bonding // Wedding Reception // Inevitable // Reunion // Total Erasure // A Running Leap AU // Something New // Christmas Cookies // Lifeguard AU // Panic // Pet Store // Sculptor AU // That Time // Lawyer/Client AU // Arthur // Amnesia AU // Family Dinner // Believe in Love // Flirting // Mr. and Mrs. Lee 1.0 AU // Public Episode // The Australia Chronicles AU // Mid Fight // Mafia AU // [Wedding Reception] // Wedding Gift // Birthday // Interfering // Territorial

Thenamesh Week 2022

(stand alone entries from pre-selected prompts)

"Come on T, get in here!" Kingo came over, laughing from his belly, his cheeks ruddy. His goblet of 'nectar' sloshed around in his gesticulating hand. "We're celebrating."

She made a face, trying to force her words off her tongue in an orderly fashion. It felt heavy, as if sodden by the liquid. "Shan't."

Her brother swerved his way over to her, "aw c'mon, don't be like that. What's got you down?"

She glared at his attempt to capture her chin with his fingers. Only one being alive was allowed such liberties. Although leaning away from him nearly sent her to the floor. What did these humans do to make such strong grain liquor? "You're not Gilgamesh."

"Well, you're right, I'm not," he admitted for her. He put his hands on his hips. "Is that what's got you so sour?"

"I am not sour," she groused, although she could even hear in her voice that she sounded like Sprite after being woken from a midday hangover nap. Kingo merely stood there, waiting for more. She huffed, "where is he?"

Kingo also looked around, and he was also somewhat unsteady on his feet. He was a seasoned party goer, though. The revelry was no stranger to him. "I swear I saw him earlier."

Thena glared down at the stone bench offering its form. Her body was begging her to lie down and shut out the loud noises. But, just for herself, she pursed her lips. "He should be here."

He should be here, beside her. If he was going to revel, let him do it with her. Sure, she didn't usually partake in the drink. But she was now! If he was going to be here at all, let him sit next to her so she could lean on those massive arms of his. Perfectly strong, firm but also soft. Broad and warm. Inviting.

She shook her head at herself.

"Humans make a hell of a drink, huh?" Kingo snorted. He had waved his hands so much his nectar was now spilled all over the cobbles instead of ready for consumption. He waved his hand at her. "Let's see if we can find him."

She looked up at the invitation with a pitiful expression (she could feel it on her own face). She did want to find Gilgamesh, but she wanted not to move at all nearly as much.

Kingo waved his hand again, "and find me another drink."

She sighed, allowing him to help her to her feet. She was loath to admit that her swerving steps strayed further and less steadily than his had.

"Whoa," Kingo remarked. He offered his elbow to her, although as soon as she was even close to walking upright she released it. "Forgot you're a lightweight."

"I am not!"

She had forgotten to keep her voice down in this exchange between them. But everyone else around them was shouting!

"Sorry T, just tellin' it like it is," he shrugged at her before a single hiccup. "You're li'l--all that liquor's got nowhere to go except your big, jumpy brain."

She swatted at his hands, fluttering his fingers menacingly close to ruffling her hair. "I am not little."

"Kinda," he shrugged again. This time he was swift, plopping his palm onto the top of her head, even pushing down on her voluminous blonde hair just to illustrate how much shorter she was than he. "You probably weigh half what Gil does."

"Gilgamesh is made of ore straight from great Olympia."

He rolled his eyes at her needlessly poetic description of their absent comrade.

"He is strong, and solid, and...and punches...and carries me."

He looked at her again as her words ran on and tumbled together.

She tried to slow them, or sort them, or something to that effect. But instead they just kept coming. "And his hands...they're rough. But when...when he-"

"No!" Kingo waved his hands again, as if trying to signal from a great distance and not right next to her. "No, no, no, no, no, I don't wanna hear this!"

She knotted her brows together. He was being such a nuisance thanks to this drink. "I am talking about Gilg'mesh."

"And I don't wanna hear how his hands feel!" Kingo belted, putting his palms to his ears and running away.

Thena made a face to herself and continued without his company. She didn't need him to whine in her ear. All she was going to say was that her partner's touch was softer any time her hand was in his. He was delicate with her in a way she quietly liked. Although she supposed she had been about to declare it aloud--something she had never felt the need to do before.

She steered herself in another direction. Eventually she had to find a road leading away from the commotion, did she not? Step by step, a sea of noise around her, shadows flickering from all the torches lit.

"Thena?"

Sersi, and that meant Ikaris probably wasn't far. She wasn't in the mood to talk to him.

"Everything okay?" Sersi persisted, which wasn't unusual for her. She trotted a few steps on the cobblestones. She was still sober enough to walk.

"Gil."

The Alchemist Eternal blinked at the short, clipped word. But her expression turned soft as she offered a smile. "I'm sure he's here somewhere."

Thena's expression remained dour, though. That was what Kingo had said. But, she realised, there was a problem with that: if he was here somewhere, then why wasn't he here with her?

Sersi tilted her head at the expression on her sister's face. "I-I can help you find him."

Thena glanced up, catching Ikaris' eye. He was just as sour at being deprived of his other half. But he looked to be in a similar state of inebriation as she. She clicked her tongue in his direction. He gave her the finger.

"Come on," Sersi sighed, directing her two most contentious family members away from one another. She linked her arm with Thena's. "Maybe Ajak wanted to check in on him. The fight today was...quite something."

The legend would tell of something else, surely--an enemy army invading under the guise of a great beast. In reality. quite a sizeable Deviant had breached the city walls, a demonic looking horse destroying years of work with its hooves.

"We were vict'rious," Thena blinked. She needed to bridge that gap in her words.

"We were," Sersi agreed. "Thanks to the lot of you."

Thena looked at her teammate. Sersi wasn't exactly one to charge into battle. But her power was simply too versatile for her to cower on the back lines. "Your defense helps per-tect humans. They should...they shall...grateful."

Best to stick to fewer words.

Sersi smiled at the ground. "We were lucky so few were badly hurt in all of it."

Maybe Ajak was still healing. Maybe that was where Gilgamesh was. Maybe he was helping those whose homes had been crushed, either by the Deviant or by the wall. He always worked tirelessly to help those who weren't as strong as they. It was a continuation of his protection, as he saw it.

Sersi stumbled just a little as Thena leaned against her heavily (slumped, really). "Th-Thena?"

She groaned. She wanted to by lying on a soft chaise, Gil's fingers combing through her hair. And the need for that would not wait.

Sersi did her best to rub her shoulder and pat her hair in an attempt at comfort.

The Warrior opened her eyes feeling new footsteps approaching. Heavy, lazy ones and ones as light as a hummingbird's wings.

"What's with'er?" Druig asked and pointed blatantly, his mouth stuffed full of celebratory fruit.

"Looking for GIl," Sersi snipped at him, juggling the wilting Warrior against her shoulder. "Seen him?"

Makkari shrugged, although she came to the other side of their sister, balancing out Thena's lack of desire to stand up straight. The big guy would come in handy right now, huh?

Thena watched Makkari's hands closely. The words were in her mind already, but she mustered some effort to really nod and respond, picking up her head. "I r'quire his presence."

Druig's eyebrows shut up like a smoke flare. "She drunk?"

"Quite," Sersi frowned, at least relieved of the burden of Thena's shoulder digging into her own. "You see why we need to find him."

"Aye, aye," Druig drawled. He shoved down the last of his grapes and dusted off his hands. By the time he stopped chewing his eyes were glowing red. "Hm."

Thena looked at Makkari beside her. The Speedster watched her mouth, waiting for what she was trying so very hard to spit out. "Lizard."

All present sighed, but Makkari left her side and returned before her body could even notice the change in support. She unfurled her palms to present the nearest creature she could bring as offering.

Thena beamed. She had asked for a lizard and one had appeared. It blinked its bulbous eyes at her ever so charmingly. "Hello, handsome."

"Help me sit her down?"

The Warrior paid no mind to how she was lowered to the nearest surface to sit, based on the creaking she would say some stray crate or barrel. She eyed the reptile settling into her palm. "This is what I need."

The lizard looked at her for elaboration.

She sighed, gazing down at her new companion. He understood her, clearly. "I am you. And Gil is my hand. Warm and board. And soft."

"Do I have to listen to this shite?"

"Can you find him or not?"

"I'm lookin'!"

Makkari leaned over to examine her little friend. He's cute.

Thena inhaled, filling her chest with air but not feeling any more grounded. She looked at the sky, ending up with her back to the nearest supporting wall. "Gil is cute."

Eyes bulged around her, and not just her cold blooded friend's.

"And sweet," Thena continued in her apt description. It was tinged with misery, but that was only because of his absence. She looked at Makkari. "Where is he?"

Her jaw bobbed before whipping her head at their mind reading brother. Well?!

"You two try lookin' for one thought in this clusterf-" Druig stopped griping in the middle of his words, his eyes shifting. They rattled side to side a bit, "there's...where...get back here."

Thena did not fully understand how Druig's powers worked. None of them did, nor did Druig care to explain the minutia of it. But she stood, lurching over to him. "You found him?"

Druig grimaced as she gripped his shoulder. "Easy, T."

She implored him, eyes beginning to water they were so wide. "Gil?"

He looked away, utterly discomforted by her emerging emotions. "He's up the hill, Sprite's with'im so he must'a--oi!"

Thena turned on her heel, forsaking all her helpful siblings in search of her only true comfort. She would thank them come the morning, when her head felt clearer. For now, all she needed was to collapse.

"Goddess Athena!"

"Move!" She didn't usually bark at people. Raising her voice was a waste of energy. Words were a waste of energy. Unless they were with Gilgamesh.

The crowd parted for her, seeing she was walking with purpose. If anyone noticed she still had her lizard companion, they allowed it. She plodded her way through the crowd she had just left, only with the promise of Gil at the end of the dark, loud, smelly tunnel.

Her ears perked.

"It's good!"

"Yeah, I guess."

Druig had said Sprite was with him. Perhaps the reason he had disappeared was because he had found their cantankerous sibling in need of spirit lifting. Sprite was even more averse to most presences than Druig or Thena herself. If he had found her in a bad mood he would do what he could to alleviate that for her.

"Strong."

"Strong as balls--what the hell is this shit?"

Thena gathered the billowing robes of her dress into her hand to hurry her pace. She had her sympathies for her sister, but she needed Gil more than the smaller Illusionist Eternal at present.

"They called it something like 'honey' or 'nectar'. I think it's just mead with sweet syrup, though."

"Gilg'mesh!"

The two startled at the quiet peace being shattered. They were each leaning against a young olive tree overlooking the square. Gilgamesh straightened to stand properly. "Thena!"

She glared at the two of them, mostly Sprite, who glared right back. The shorter Eternal snarled, "what's got you all knotted up?"

Thena might have ignored it if she were not yearning to retire. She let go of her dress. But before she could get in a 'pissed off' match with the actual crankiest Eternal on the team, a hand met her back.

Gilgamesh rubbed small circles there, between the draping back of her linen robes. "Sorry, you were looking for me, right?"

She turned to him. She hoped her eyes were dark enough to convey her foul mood from her arduous journey. But perhaps they weren't, because he looked at her as sweetly as ever.

"You're tired," he whispered just to her, running his hands down her arms as if he could flush out the fire of her temper down through her fingertips by doing so. It perhaps wasn't so untrue, given how she wilted into him immediately.

Thena sighed as her face finally met and was welcome to burrow into the warmth of his chest.

Gil removed the lizard from her hand and set him on the tree. "I can take it from here, buddy."

Thena nuzzled the front of his tunic, "you smell like the forge."

"You smell like nectar," he chuckled in return, wrapping his arms around her. He pressed his lips to the top of her head, bringing further reprieve from the rest of the night.

"I'm outta here," Sprite grumbled, perhaps kindly, in that she actually did leave them to each other of her own accord.

"Sorry, she was sulking up here alone," he offered as as explanation, "thought I could cheer her up a little."

"Hm." Thena cared not, now that she had him in her grasp. "Looked."

She had gone looking for him. He was missed. He got the idea, tightening his hold on her. Her hands slid up the broadness of his back. "I missed you too, although I get the feeling this is the nectar talking."

She dragged her head up to pout at him. "Hm."

"I know," he smiled, indulging her again. He moved her hair out of his way to kiss the spot on her forehead left open between her hairline and her tiara. "You must need to rest."

She did long to lie down, which was something her body truly didn't crave often. But she furrowed her brow, wanting to summon the expression for herself. "Hm."

He tilted his head, waiting for her words, patient as always.

She looked up at him, the thick, dark hair on his head, the hair on his chin, the warmth in his eyes. "Want your touch."

He blushed.

She sighed again though, throwing herself into his chest anew. She let her knees go, knowing he would support her. If she never desired to stand again, he would carry her. "Like this."

"Oh." That one sound was...different. Something flat, perhaps disappointed.

She gripped the fabric of his clothes in her fists. "Bed."

Whatever had been in his mind, he set aside, for her. His mirth returned and he swept her knees up into his grip, preparing to carry her. "Good idea."

Thena revelled in the warmth coming off his body. He was carrying her up the hill towards the temple of Goddess Athena. But she cared not where they ended up. Anywhere she could curl up in his arms or on his lap would suffice. Usually she took great care to make sure no one could witness this weakness of hers--this shameful, sinful indulgence. But now she was so desperate for it she would have demanded he pet her hair and say sweet words to her right in the town square had she found him there.

"That drink smelled bad."

He chuckled again, and the feeling of his chest bouncing against her was like falling into a warm bed in its own right. "You don't smell bad to me."

She pressed her nose into his shoulder again. "You smell of comfort."

Her body practically melted as his lips met her forehead again. "You really do need to sleep this off."

She had no argument. But as they mounted the hill and began walking flat again, she sighed. "Will you stay?"

"With you?"

She nodded. Her eyes stung, her vision swam. "Do not leave me again."

She spoke as if he had gone on a journey without her. He had not even been absent from her side so deliberately, at least not in some effort to make her yearn for him. But all the same, she felt abandoned to the party without him, which made it no party for her.

"Sorry sweetheart," he breathed directly against her cheek, knowing the feeling of him close was what had brought her to him in such a state. "I won't."

He better mean that. She gripped the front of his tunic this time, lifting her eyes. He cut a rather handsome image from this angle.

He stumbled, startled as she stretched her head up just enough to nip at the underside of his jaw. "Thena!"

She didn't mind the stumble; he corrected his path. Gilgamesh was capable of far more drinking than any of them, but it never hindered his ability to be him, especially with her. "You are cute."

He ignored that, picking up pace as soon as the temple was in sight. "Let's get you lying down."

"On you."

He blushed again, and a tittering laugh rose from within her chest and pried itself free. How charming her beloved was.

He looked at her, not exactly chiding her but not quite as giddy in amusement, either. "Careful of what you say, Goddess."

She pouted at him. She would rather be Thena than a Goddess. At least to him. "Gil."

He sighed, indulging by touching the tip of his nose to hers. It made her laugh again. Satisfied, he climbed the - comparatively - few steps to her personal sanctum.

To her delight, he did not merely set her down and take his leave. He sat on her chaise, with her still perched in his arms. He reclined, still holding her. She let her fine tuned body relax, realising now how much tension she truly always carried. Even while intoxicated.

"Like this?" he let out a sigh of his own, leaning back, eyes closed, his hand toying with the ends of her hair.

"Exactly," she purred directly into the side of his neck. It didn't matter if it was on the Domo or in a grand temple or on the side of the road; if she had this, all would be well. "Touch more tomorrow."

His chest bounced against her a little more, his hand settling on her shoulder. "I'll remind you that you said so--see how you feel about it then."

"Thena?" he blinked. He wasn't napping--just testing the bed. But he rubbed his eyes and sat up further.

She entered his room silently, as she did all things. He knew that she hadn't exactly had an easy time with the journey, either. And for some of it, Ajak had split them into groups, some of them travelling ahead to make sure Deviants couldn't corner them on a path with no easy exit.

Thena walked over to him, perching herself on the edge of the bed. He watched her hands grip the sheets.

"Nice, right?" he smiled, reading her very small movements the way one would read hieroglyphs. "At least we've got some nice beds after all the time it took to get here."

After so long of riding, then camping, riding, then camping. The group of them, spread out as much as they could be, yet also crammed and confined.

Now that Gilgamesh thought of it, they had been separated even then. In the early days of being on the planet, they could at least hide on the Domo. Or if not, if they really had to hunker down and sleep around a fire, Gil could recall all kinds of pairing up, in a way.

They would gravitate naturally together, like a planet and its closest moon. Makkari and Druig would end up snickering and whispering together. Sersi and Ikaris would end up hovering close, to no one's surprise. That would put Sprite in a mood, so Kingo would inevitably end up next to her to cheer her up. Even Ajak would end up mostly trying to convince Phastos not to build them a castle out of thin air. And that left him and Thena.

They made the best pair, in Gil's opinion. He didn't think it was any secret, either. Sure, Thena didn't wave at him from across the room, or call out to him to invite him next to her. But she didn't have to; she did exactly that in other ways.

As far as he was concerned, it was just as much an invitation when she silently searched a room until her eyes were locked onto him like a predator. It was her asking nicely when she would ever so slightly move over to make room for him beside her. Even in battle, when he would grasp a handful of her to launch her into the sky, they didn't need words.

Thena didn't need words.

"You okay?" he asked. Most didn't bother--of course the Warrior Eternal was okay, and she hardly ever responded to such a blase question anyhow. But he leaned his head down close to her.

"Hm," she hummed. That was quite a typical answer for her. She would make these little sounds, listening but stirring a cauldron of her own words before selecting them. "Long."

It was a hell of a long trip. They all missed the Domo ever since departing Babylon. And the trip from China to settling here was their longest yet.

Gilgamesh leaned back on the bed, letting his hands behind him support him. "It really was. I'm glad to be off those poor horses. Can't believe they survived carrying us all this way."

He had been reluctant to even get on one. No matter what Ajak said about horses being strong enough to carry human men who were probably even heavier than he - and he didn't think the 'even' had been necessary there, thank you - it didn't dissuade him. He had gotten on the horse, and the poor creature's back hadn't broken along the way, so he guessed she was ultimately right. But he wouldn't be looking to commandeer a horse any time soon.

Thena smiled. She was visibly remembering his fuss about getting on one. She found things like that funny. Him whining about getting on a regular old horse, Ikaris complaining when no one was treating him like the leader he saw himself as, Kingo wailing about how no one appreciated him by showering him with praise and gifts.

Gil nudged her faintly. "You did all right."

Thena didn't love animals. Rather, she was unusually fond of ones without fur. It was in quite a contrast to most others, who found the furry ones cute and approachable. Thena tended to avoid them, as if the fur on their skin were a way of them deceiving her. She instead liked ones with scales. The colder the blood inside them, the more fond of them she was.

Thena's horse was as solitary as she was, and somewhat skittish. It was a pure white horse, which Ajak insisted was a funny coincidence. But it was even harder to get closer to Thena than usual. Any time Gil had tried to drift closer to be able to talk, Thena's horse would take it upon itself to drift as far away from the others as it was allowed. And Ajak had placed them at the front and back of the procession as soon as they were in bandit - and Deviant - territory anyway.

She let out a breath. It was close to a sigh, and Gil was sure he knew what it meant. She was just as spent as all the rest of them. She sank a little heavier into the bed. Her shoulder met his.

Gilgamesh smiled to himself. He had missed her, too. The most contact they'd had was earlier that day, when they'd finally arrived and dismounted for good. He had even moved to the back of the pack just to greet her, ask how she was doing. He had been so eager just to trade a few words that he'd reached up and held her by the waist, all but lifting her off the horse and to the ground.

She didn't need his help, and he shouldn't be doing un-human things like that. But she had smiled at him for it, so he didn't really think it was that bad.

"Me too," he voiced aloud, leaning against her only as much as she was. Truth be told, he would be happy to invite her to lie next to him and sleep an entire day. But Thena needed things at her pace, and he was always fine with that.

Maybe to his surprise, she leaned against him more heavily. She really was feeling the effects of their journey. She let their arms meet, bare skin against bare skin. He felt better having his arms unrestricted, even if fighting without their cosmic armour did require a little more caution. Thena's skin was so pale, so soft. He always likened it to quarts, found beneath the earth, or pearls unearthed from the sea.

Thena sighed again, budging so they were shoulder to shoulder, arm to arm. She even moved her head to rest against his.

He inhaled where she exhaled. He caught the scent of fresh air off her plume of blonde hair. It was like a pillow, even if it tickled his nose a little. Every once in a while, on the road, he would dream about waking up with it next to him like this.

His eyes opened again as her arms wound around his. Both of hers could slither around his one easily, like a constrictor. But this was uncharacteristic of his solitary Warrior. "Thena?"

She didn't look at him. This wasn't something she needed to communicate so directly. But she didn't loosen her grip.

Gilgamesh blinked, looking at more of the top of her head than her face, now. It wasn't like Thena never needed support. It was rare, and he was certain none of the others had ever seen it like this. But she had her times when she needed a hand around hers while Ajak was healing something extreme. Sometimes she got too wound up by the new sounds around them to sleep in a new place.

She pressed her face into his bicep before mumbling, "warm."

He didn't think she was cold. Even the edges of the Guptan Empire had been tropical in climate. They were lucky the stone palace they had found for themselves here retained any cool the night had to offer.

Gil tried moving his arm, but Thena kept a tight grip of it. He readjusted his strategy. "Do you wanna lie down?"

She shook her head. She wasn't asking to sleep here, at least not yet. She just...wanted to be close.

He tried not to chuckle. He understood the feeling; he had been missing being close to her, too. Maybe they didn't hang off each other the way Sersi and Ikaris had started doing. He didn't need to stand beside her with his hand around her waist all the time. She didn't exactly hang off his arm for the fun of it. But he thought of even standing close together before and after a fight as being in their own little world.

Thena allowed him to adjust them, still griping his arm but letting his hand grasp the far side of her leg, bringing her even closer. It was too close, really, the two of them bumping awkwardly in an ever deepening crater in the side of his bed.

Gil maintained the quiet Thena liked as she moved her face from his skin to his shirt. She sighed again before again whispering, like she needed the air to get out the one word, "you."

He grinned. He knew what it meant. It was a lot packed into just one word. But it said a lot more than Ikaris calling Sersi 'darling', or Druig calling Makkari 'm'lady'. It was infinitely more than just addressing him. Sometimes he thought it was like Thena encapsulating a concept. One little word, but she said it with so much warmth, it was impossible for him to misunderstand.

"You," he whispered back, speaking her language for her benefit. He twisted so he could kiss the top of her hair. She released her hold and they moved together. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder. She moved to wrapping both arms around him, without his arm in the way.

Thena allowed him to recline on the bed with her, this time. He swept both their legs up in one smooth move. She settled against him like she was made to be there, purring quietly as her hand claimed his chest and her head claimed his ribs.

"Ah," Gil let out as if taking in a cold ale after a hot day. The beds weren't bad but this made them all the better. He would have accepted being able to lean against her around a dinky little campfire, but this was what his heart had really been craving. It was selfish, and quite a private desire. But now it was real.

Thena responded to every breath, letting her own ribs expand against his. Her long, slim legs tangled somewhat in the winding robes that made up her dress. Her hand gripped a handful of his tunic, as if he would be ripped away from her.

Gil was just about to drift off again when he felt a finger on his cheek. He cracked one eye open.

"Not yet."

He groaned. He knew he couldn't afford to sleep yet. It was the middle of the day, despite it being the end of a long journey for them. Ajak would come calling for them any minute. They had locals to meet, things to discuss with the human nobility who were housing them. Kingo would be eager to find them some clothing more befitting of this locale.

That wouldn't be so bad--it was even hotter here than in central China.

"Gil," Thena laughed faintly. She was speaking more, which meant her discomfort was ebbing away, slowly but surely. She dragged herself up his chest to look down at him. "Soon."

He smiled at her. What a vision she was, her hair tumbling around her, green eyes sparkling now that she'd found some reprieve. He raised his hand to her cheek, which he could swear was regaining a little colour after being even more pallid than usual.

Thena leaned into his touch, shameless with no one to witness it but the two of them.

His arm was heavy across her back. It was easy for the curve of her waist to fit into the crook of his elbow. His fingers fluttered against the other side of that shape, mostly diving into the linen of her clothes, but finding the traces of her skin just under that surface.

Thena edged closer and closer to him until her hair could curtain around their faces.

Gil looked at her, not moving on his own but eagerly awaiting what was to come. He knew that she sometimes did this--saw the meeting of their lips as a way to feel their closeness. He couldn't speak for Thena as to whether she thought of kissing him as something romantic. But it was intimate, especially for Thena.

They were almost there when the door slammed open.

"Gil, get down here and--oh!"

Gil parted from Thena with a sour expression. "Can't you animals knock?"

Kingo simply leaned against the doorway, making no promises. "Can't you two wait to start canoodling?"

Thena pulled herself away just as quietly as she'd come in. But she didn't go far, sitting up, swiping her hair away from her face before turning to glare at Kingo for herself. "Out."

Kingo held his hands up, eyes closed before he was even turned around, as if he'd found them in a much more compromising position than he really had. "I'm going. But Ajak will come and get you next, and she won't be as soft as I am."

Gil rolled his eyes freely at that work of fiction. But he pulled at his clothes as Kingo's heavy steps faded. He looked at Thena, she smoothed out her dress over her lap. He bent, trying to find her eye.

She met his for only a moment. It was only for a second, but a whisper of bashfulness crossed her face for a moment. She turned, letting her hair conceal her from him again. "Let us go."

He sighed; no kiss this time. "Yeah, I'm sure Ajak is itching to start the diplomacy."

They both stood, although to his delight Thena slipped her hand into his. He looked at her, then down at their joined hands, then at her again. He didn't mind, but the others might have questions. And if not, they would just point it out uncouthly, like children.

She gave his hand a squeeze. She wasn't letting go.

He smiled; fine by him. He followed her lead, letting her pull him. He nearly bumped into her when she stopped on the threshold suddenly. "Th-!"

She turned, raising on her toes just a little to press her lips to his. It was soft, almost chaste in nature. But it was genuine, from the way her shoulders rose to unconsciously be closer to him, to the way their lips fit together perfectly. She sank back down to the floor with the satisfied grin of a patient hunter. "Now."

Her eyes slid towards the stranger who was still speaking to her, completely unprompted as far as Thena was concerned. Moreover, the warm tone of her voice when speaking of Gil.

She tilted her head at the image of him however distant from their vantage point at the bar. "He really is the crown jewel of the museum. He does such good work in the field, and he always handles things professionally, even when the museum has to surrender artifacts."

That actually meant that either he had lost his bounty to her, or she had managed to state her case and Gil had reluctantly agreed to leave the completely priceless artifact in the hands of its rightful people.

"He's quite the catch."

Thena gulped down her sip a little more loudly than necessary. She looked down at the bubbling liquid, wondering if she should have listened to Karun and eaten more before they left the manor. Her stomach was suddenly churning.

"I didn't think he was with anyone, but lately he's all about getting out on time, not travelling too far. It's quite unlike what he was like before."

Well, living in a mansion perhaps had its perks over living in a bachelor pad and travelling business class to work for a bunch of pompous, stuck up, entitled-

"Our loss."

"What makes you say that?" Thena almost had to check if she had, in fact, said anything, so taken off guard by her own words. But she had indeed interjected, surprising the other woman just as much if not more.

"A-About Gil?" she asked, making sure she hadn't misheard the sudden participation in her little game. She looked between Gil, surrounded by museum proprietors, and Thena. "Well, he is quite sought after here at the museum."

"Is he?" Thena continued, against her better judgement at that. But her interest was piqued, for better or worse. She leaned against the bar, eyeing the woman. She was tall, slim without seeming frail, her hair was wound up for the evening but Thena would guess its auburn locks would end around the woman's shoulders. She had emeralds dangling from her ears, complimenting her freckled complexion.

She was quite lovely.

The woman turned sheepish, toying with her champagne. "I admit I know of many who have asked about his love life."

"Have you?" Thena asked entirely too directly. She was intimidating this poor woman who was just here to enjoy a work party. But she felt like a zoo animal being teased with a pound of flesh just outside her enclosure.

The woman blushed. "It was months ago."

Thena tried to force herself out of doing the math in her head. She adjusted her weight on her feet, mindful of the leg that could still feel achy on rainy nights. "What did he say?"

Her embarrassment didn't wane. "He made some joke about not having the time for anything. He was barely back to work, then, and he was playing desk jockey of all things. I think it was his way of letting me down easy, if I'm honest."

"Hm," Thena took another sip. The woman was entirely honest, and with someone who hadn't been all that pleasant. "He's interesting, in that way."

This startled her. She blinked her eyes, and Thena took in their bright blue color. "You do know him."

Thena just stared back at her.

But the woman drew herself up, going on the offense as it were. "That isn't something you say about someone you don't know."

Thena shrugged. Her mind went to four out of the seven nights of the past week. The manor library, his bed - twice - and even the shower in her home gym downstairs. "We've crossed paths."

However her adversary chose to take that, it wasn't exactly lying down. "If I've spoken out of turn, I didn't mean-"

"No," Thena clarified sharply. She put her flute down on the bar and slid it away from her. "I do mean we've crossed paths in our contracting. But Gilgamesh doesn't have any leash on him--that I'm aware of."

She wasn't the best liar in the world.

"I'm sure you could ask him," she tried her best to sound casual. To sound flippant, as if this had been a friendly chat and not a one sided joust to satiate her boredom. She even dashed her eyes towards the man in question.

Gil was looking at her, too. Their eyes met. He didn't back down, and she ended up having to look away first.

She plastered on a smile for her new acquaintance. "If you like."

The woman didn't rise to her bait (good for her). She also put down her flute and offered a smile, maybe more tepid than her first. "I believe I've stepped into something I wasn't aware of. Maybe I should call it a night."

Thena felt neither remorse nor satisfaction. She moved out of the woman's way. "He's not taken."

"I think you're wrong about that."

Thena pursed her lips. She did try--she couldn't be sure what she had tried, but she did try. If anything, Gil was the sop trying to put some name to a thing that really didn't need it. She liked whatever was happening as it was: uncomplicated. And in her own words, if she wanted a boyfriend, she would enroll herself back in school because only children needed such terms to coin their fleeting affections.

Maybe she had said it a little more acerbicly than necessary. Gil had sulked for the rest of the night and the next morning he told her about tonight.

Thena watched the woman move onto better company, which was deserved. She really was quite pretty, and she almost wondered if Gil had ever mentioned her by name and Thena simply hadn't known or paid attention to something she should have. Then she rolled her eyes at herself for even thinking it because what she had said was true. Gilgamesh was not a dog on a leash, and if the lovely creature or anyone wanted to shoot their shot, she wasn't going to act a shield.

Her eyes rose as the seas parted. She raised an eyebrow as he charged at her, ignoring those who had been waiting in line for his attention and were now being denied their turn. "Your adoring fans are waiting."

"What did you say to her?"

It wasn't cold, it wasn't harsh, but something about it made her bristle. She glared at him, "I beg your pardon?"

Gil barely tipped his head in the direction of her escaped prey. "I saw you talking, and then you looked at me."

Their eyes had met, there was no use pretending they had been discussing more trivial matters. Nor was she in the mood to back down from the challenge. "She inquired about you."

"What about me?" he was becoming more direct the longer he stayed with her.

She raised both eyebrows now. If he wanted to play then fine, at least she would have a cure for her boredom. "I believe she was curious if you were available or not."

He made a face.

"Apparently she's attempted to ask in the past," Thena turned coy, knowing how it made him grind his teeth. She could see it when he moved his jaw from side to side. "I told her she could ask again if she wanted."

"Bullshit."

"Gilgamesh," Thena grinned, "you're usually more gentlemanly than this."

He glanced around them, surveying the area. His fans had given up on their pursuit of him, seeing him in discussion with her, and over something less than professional based on their body language. He stepped closer to her, putting his hands on his hips to enclose their shared space a little. "Big talk for the woman who told me not to be such a prude yesterday."

She pursed her lips faintly. "It is my home, Gilgamesh. If I choose to move from shower to room without a towel I hardly think you have a right to police that."

He sighed through his nose and fixed his eyes straight ahead, over the top of hers. Then he looked at her again, all but whispering in her ear, "the problem isn't that you can't. The problem is when you do and expect me not to bat an eye."

She inhaled, smelling the cologne she had silently left in his room. She didn't know if he had any, or if he did, then she either didn't notice it or didn't like it. It had been meant as a favour. "I didn't think you had so little control."

"You underestimate what being around you is like."

"Putting the blame on me again?"

"I didn't have this problem until you."

They eyed each other. He was entertaining her desire for a tug of war. And yet just that knowledge was becoming dangerous. She had known he would notice her talking to someone. And she had known that if she used the right words, then that woman would know that she couldn't possibly be someone he only knew in passing.

What she wouldn't know would become much more important than what she did, and Thena had wanted it that way.

Thena reached up to his bow tie, straightening it needlessly. "Stop renting these things."

"I only need them twice a year," he huffed, and yet made no move to stop her from straightening and then undoing it.

"It's a few more than that," Thena grumbled. Not that she was all that aware of the number of times Gil got dragged to the museum for some such gala. "Just buy one so you won't have to worry about getting some deposit back."

He looked down at her, now slipping her hand into the jacket and undoing his button. "What's going to happen to this one?"

She shrugged one shoulder. "That will be up to you."

She heard him growl to himself as she turned to leave. She'd come with him, which was already out of character for her. It wasn't entirely clear if it was a favour to him or an excuse for her to toy with his colleagues. And it was even more unclear if she had enjoyed herself or put herself in a foul mood.

Her stomach was still churning.

"She did ask me. I didn't think it mattered."

Thena went to great efforts to ignore him as he took his place at her side, leaving the event inappropriately early, especially after his speech. "Then your answer doesn't matter, either."

"You think I'd take her - or anyone - up on any offer?"

He was legitimately asking her, and she really didn't enjoy that she knew him well enough to hear his offense. He was hurt by her doubt of him, even if she considered it something he didn't have to ask permission or even talk about openly.

She had said what she said, and she wouldn't go back on it. He wasn't getting an apology for that.

"You may not see things the way I do." That much was clear, and she had thought that it wasn't so integral to their arrangement. If it was going to become a problem, then she would have to rethink things. "But I sure as shit wouldn't consider myself a cheater."

She scowled, "Gilgamesh-"

"You don't have to be my girlfriend. But pretending I'm not yours in any way is a lie, and you know it."

Hers. That was the word she had been searching for. If she were asked, she wouldn't say they were in a 'relationship' in the traditional sense. They weren't paramours, she wouldn't call them lovers, they weren't dating and she certainly wouldn't use some insipid and juvenile term to describe the things they did behind closed doors.

But he was hers. It was simple, plain to the ear and yet it spoke of an understanding. It was exactly how she would describe what was happening, and the fact that he knew that was a killing blow.

"So I don't give a shit who's asking if I'm single," he finished with a rough sigh. He didn't want to be having this conversation either. And yet his hand was still at the small of her back, as natural as anything. "Tell them whatever you want--I'm not."

It sounded like something she would say. It was resolute, no input from her necessary. Somehow he had seen something completely apart from him transpire and knew exactly what she wanted to hear from him. And maybe that was something she liked about him. Not that he would give into her, but that he would challenge her anyway, argue with her, play her little game. That he could do all that and still have resolve to him.

"I didn't tell her anything," Thena finally admitted, as if it were damning evidence and not a statement of fact. "I told her she could ask you whatever she wanted."

"And it sent her running," he surmised, and now she could hear a smile starting to form in his words. "Must have said something to get her tail tucked like that."

"Nothing of the sort," she refuted, not liking the accusation he was loading into the chamber.

"Nothing?" he asked, now rapidly approaching teasing territory. "I mean, I'm flattered, hon."

"Shove it," she snarled at him. If he was about to insinuate that she was some jealous little debutante hissing at other women to keep them away from him, she would happily kick him back to his little bachelor pad.

"Come on," he chuckled (the audacity). "Green's a good colour on you."

"Walk home."

She had given up that she wasn't even thinking about kicking him out.

"Then how would I finish this date properly?"

She turned to tell him that this was far from a date, that she had no intention of joining him on any date in any way, and that to imply that this was a date was insane of him.

Gil took the opportunity to pull her into kissing him.

He was a good kisser, she was loath to admit. Granted, they did an awful lot of it, these days. Even when they didn't have time, when she would catch him cooking in the kitchen between Karun's meals, she might steal a kiss. She didn't consider it stealing a little peck for the sake of it. Maybe she saw it more like a form of payment--something he owed her and which she could take any time she liked.

She moaned, letting him slide his arm around her waist completely. She had considered tying her hair up, as would be expected of a black tie event. But she wasn't exactly beholden to rules in that way. Plus, Gil liked running his fingers through it, and a few pins wouldn't exactly deter him. She knew that already.

They stumbled a little, her back hit the wall. If anyone was watching them act like animals in heat then security was slow. Gil opened the nearest door and twirled them inside.

She threw him back against the door. She asserted her dominance, because she was in control of this. She always was--that was how she liked it. And Gil always accepted that. If she didn't go to him in the night then he wouldn't come sniffing around for her. If she slithered into his bed at night merely to sleep, he would sleep.

Whatever it was that they were, they were 'that' according to her terms.

Gil let her take from him, his hands on her waist for the enjoyment of it, his tongue fighting hers as if they were still arguing with words. His hand was making a mess of her hair.

Thena's hands made quick work of the shirt buttons. She absolutely would buy him a proper tuxedo, not one of these mass produced little dress-up costumes.

Gil hauled her up into his arms without a second thought. Those arms of his were more than capable, and he was so used to holding her thighs by now that she wondered if her muscles were like memory foam to his fingers.

Thena gasped as he held her hip with one hand, her legs wrapped around him, and then worked on his zipper and also her dress with the other. "A real pro?"

"I have a demanding lover."

She didn't know whether to more offended at being called his lover or demanding. But she would take his penance in the form of her pleasure, grinding her hips against his as soon as his belt was out of her way.

He groaned right into her mouth, their hearts beating the same frantic rhythm. "And impatient."

"Shut up and fuck."

He obeyed orders well. Thena groaned into his shoulder as he slid her down onto him and he up into her. Their hips locked together like a mechanism as old as time. Her fingers gripped the hair at the back of his neck.

Thena braced herself against the wall. They really were like animals in heat. In truth, she had never had a drive like she had with Gil. She wasn't a creature who needed satisfaction night after night. It wasn't like her to wander the house looking for him, whether to shove her tongue down his throat or just to annoy him for fun. This wasn't how she was used to living her life.

But everyday, in her own home, there he was. And she had invited him.

"Fuck," Gil cursed as he thrust up into her. He always cursed when they were physical, and she liked that side of him rising to meet all of her rough edges with his own. It was like two stones grinding together until smooth.

"Yes," she gasped with every bounce of her whole body. She wasn't a creature so in need of satisfaction, but Gil was better at satisfying her than anyone in her memory. The way he handled her body, the way he let her take as she liked and still took in return, knowing that he could as long as she was in control of it. He just felt good to fuck.

It felt good when it was his mouth on her in the library. It was good when they were sneaking into some room to romp against a wall. And it felt good when they were in his bed, rutting like civilised people, bodies matching beat for beat in a way she had never experienced before.

"Jealousy looks good on you," the bastard had the gall to say.

She bit down on his ear, hard enough that he flinched. She even tasted a little blood, but she probably wouldn't apologise for it, knowing her.

His hips didn't stop. If anything, he sped up after having her rile him up. And wasn't that her favourite thing to do?

"Do whatever you want. As long as you come, that's all I need."

Why did he say things like that? He insisted on it. And somehow, every time he felt the need to say that he wanted her to come, her body would respond to it. As if voicing his desire for her pleasure would awaken it inside of her.

It wasn't uncommon for her to not achieve such an end, in her past. It was a lot of the reason she didn't seek out affairs all that often.

But she whimpered, tightening internally as Gil moved harder and faster. Her breath came in short, hot bursts, her voice rising in volume and pitch. Their lips would meet and then separate, both of them swallowing each other's air, tongues still reaching for one another.

Her cleavage had a sheen of sweat, the insides of her thighs were a mess. Security might bust down the door and arrest them for indecency. And yet her body was determined that if she didn't come in the next 30 seconds she would perish. "Fuck, yes, yes, there!"

He held her thighs more firmly, whatever space they were in was filled with the warmth of their bodies and the sounds of their flesh slapping together both beautifully and grotesquely.

"Gil, yes, coming, fuck, fuck-!!" Thena threw her head back no matter how unbalanced it felt to do so. She gripped the back of his shirt collar and slapped the wall above his head.

He let out a groan from somewhere deep. His hips hit hers a few more times as he too reached his release and drew it out for himself. Between sucking in air desperately they still managed to kiss. It was loud and sloppy, mouths wide open and tongues congratulating and reacquainting. He tasted like scotch and she tasted like champagne.

Thena squeezed her eyes shut as he slipped out of her. Her thigh muscles were borderline cramping, and her awareness of the air against her bare flesh grew. She patted his shoulder.

Gil slumped against the wall behind him as he lowered her to her feet with as much control as he could muster. Her heels hit the floor and she immediately slumped forward into him. His arms encircled her naturally.

She huffed and puffed into his sub-par dress shirt, which would now have sweat and saliva and probably some of her lipstick on it. Definitely not returnable now. She tried to push against his chest to stand but it wasn't something her body was capable of just this second.

Gil managed to run his fingers through his own hair, which now looked positively wild after she'd had her way with it. He looked down at her, his mouth stained red from her insistence. "You good?"

She felt divine. She felt the way she imagined a goddess felt being sculpted. But she pushed herself off his chest and righted her knees. "Clean yourself up."

He made some sound that she imagined was him rolling his eyes. She heard more than watched him zip himself up and redo his belt. Her hips wiggled a little and she ultimately decided that her current panties were just not going to be of use.

Gil sighed as she shoved them into his inside pocket. "Guess we're giving up on this thing, huh?"

"You never intended to return this," she corrected. Because if he had, he would have never rattled her chain the way he did. Flirting with danger.

"I guess I didn't," he snorted, although as he righted his shirt and the jacket again, he did make double sure her little gift was tucked away safely. He raised a brow at her in the darkness. "You sure you don't need these?"

She turned her nose up at the question, tugging him away from the door. It didn't matter if security or the museum board or a godforsaken reporter was out there waiting for her. She would not be dignifying that question.

There wasn't anyone, surprisingly enough. She slipped out easily, twisting her hair over her shoulder and dusting off the skirt of her dress. There was a certain draft but she refused to give Gil the satisfaction. Any more than she already had, that was to say.

Gilgamesh slipped out after a moment, looking like he had just retrieved his coat. His shirt looked a bit rumpled and he had obviously been sweating. Perhaps it could be chalked up to nerves over his appearance tonight. He glanced at her.

She eyed his ear, which did indeed have some redness around its shell.

He, sensing her looking at it, touched it and pulled his hand away. It wasn't bleeding particularly profusely.

She refused to apologise for that, too.

He took the suit jacket off entirely, draping it over the open back of her sparkling white dress. She didn't need it, but she didn't rip it off, either. He leaned down to her ear, "my hands are all over you."

In more ways than one. She wouldn't consider that something shameful, but she was reluctantly grateful for the extra warmth, no matter where on her body it was.

He followed her out of the corridor and out of the museum itself. "Is a car already on the way?"

Thena held her hand out. Gil took a second - probably to roll his eyes at her again - but handed over her phone. "I told Druig to send a car at 11 regardless."

The two waited in silence for only a few minutes before Gil couldn't resist commenting, "fun night, all things considered."

She shook her head. She wouldn't be dignifying that either. It was only a few minutes until one of the estate cars pulled up out front. It was a long stairway down to it, but she grasped the front of her dress - incidentally holding the slit of it closed - and started the descent.

Gil's hand held hers to steady her, whether consciously or not. They were almost at the bottom of the stairs when his hand slipped from hers. "Hey."

She stopped in her tracks and even looked back at him. Even doing that was betraying her good mood, although she did try to look annoyed at his pause. "What?"

His eyes ran over her in a certain way.

"What?" she snapped, especially as a breeze passed them again.

He shrugged. "I didn't really get a chance earlier. You look... "

Apparently it was more effective not to finish his thought and leave it at that. Thena just stared at him. Of all the inopportune times or things she didn't really like hearing from him, this was the ultimate combo. She blinked.

Satisfied he'd stolen the words off the tip of her tongue, he reached past her to open the car door. He even held his hand up, "you said I needed to be more gentlemanly."

Her jaw bobbed. Which only made her brain scramble because she didn't want him to think he had succeeded in flustering her. He hadn't. She scoffed, rolled her eyes, and ultimately turned his chin away from her, even as she used his shoulder to steadily slide into the backseat of the car. "I should have made you walk."

The funeral pyre had taken all night to burn itself out. Eternals didn't have much need for funerals. It wasn't everyday one of their kind fell. But they did what they were supposed to, honouring the life of a great soul.

Thena had watched the flames. She couldn't imagine what she looked like. She didn't feel like her eyes were seeing anything, she wasn't hearing anything around her. Every time her family spoke, they sounded tremendously far away. Rather, she felt tremendously far away from all of them.

She just kept looking at the flames, thinking that she ought to be there. Should she be there instead of him?--with him? It almost didn't matter. Once her mind grasped that Gilgamesh was gone, she simply...stopped. Her thoughts stopped, her feelings ground to a halt. Her tears came, leaving her weeping and wailing over his body.

Sersi had tried to ever so gently tell her it was time. They had to move him, she had whispered, her hand running over Thena's hair. Thena had barely heard it, only watching as Druig and Kingo and even Ikaris began the process of lifting the body of their brother off the forest floor.

His hand didn't drift away from hers slowly anymore. It just hung there.

Thena looked down at the stone bowl in her hands. Druig had brought it to her. He wasn't one for needless words, at least not at times like these. And a few centuries without speaking wouldn't be mended after one fight; a fight arguably lost, at that. But he had brought her the thing for his ashes. And when she had been too numb to accept the vessel's purpose, he had softly moved her hands to grasp it.

She could feel him hovering, halfway between the river and where she had been rooted to the spot for maybe hours.

She couldn't rush things. Not this.

Ikaris had tried speaking only once, just for Sersi to silence his words before they were even out. Sersi always was better with matters such as this. Thena was more like Ikaris. She was never gifted with the ways of the heart--understanding it, healing it. That was more for Gilgamesh.

He excelled at matters of the heart. He loved freely, lived passionately, felt every feeling keenly. It was what drew people to him. Humans loved the earnest way he moved through their world. She loved that about him, too.

Hadn't said as much, had she?

She squeezed the thing closer to her, pressing it to her stomach. It was cold, and heavy, but she needed to feel that. She needed to know that Gil's soft, warm touch wouldn't be around to comfort her anymore. No more mornings with his soft smile, no more waking up from a nap to him humming in the kitchen. No more quiet little home in Australia.

Thena dragged herself away from the pyre, just a pile of burnt wood, now. She stepped down from it and towards the river, staring down at the pile of ashes that was once everything she needed in the world.

Why hadn't she told him, she had to wonder. Did she just assume he knew? Did she just think that it didn't need saying? Because surely he did know how much she loved him. How much she adored every breath and laugh and grunt he made. How much she loved knowing that of all the universes, in all the realities, she got to be with him, in this one. How much she needed him to survive the rest of eternity.

But she hadn't said anything about it. Not when he had asked what she thought of marriage and she had denounced everything to do with it. She hadn't said she loved him when he said that they could be just fine, the two of them against the rest of time. How could she not have said she loved him when she told him that he ought to stay with the rest of their family? Because she couldn't.

Telling him she loved him was too sacred. Something she couldn't even speak aloud to herself, because if she did, it would be tainting something she thought of as perfect. Who they were, how they were, everything about them. They were fine without the words.

The Warrior Eternal indeed; just a coward, she thought to herself.

Thena inhaled as the water sent a shock through her. It was frigid, first thing in the morning, even in this climate. Mist was just starting to come off of it, the water turning from inky dark to a murky green. She waded in, feeling the rocks under her feet.

She liked walking barefoot in Australia. It helped her feel grounded and connected to things, she had reasoned. Gil had always said that whatever she wanted to do, she was welcome. It was just as much her home, despite each stone and brick being laid by his indestructible hands.

"Oh, Gil," she sighed. She kept walking, past her ankles, letting her dress float in the water around her.

Why wouldn't she have just told him she loved him? How many times did she think it? It was at the forefront of her mind, every time she saw him turn a corner, lift his head from picking in the garden. He would look up at her, smile that smile he had, and she would think by all the stars in the skies did she love him. How could she not?

And surely something of that magnitude, he knew. It seemed so evident to her. That every thought she had and move she made screamed her adoration of him. He would reach for the honey to add to his tea and she would push it a little closer so he wouldn't have to stretch over the table. Was that not love?

Thena stopped once the water reached her thigh. Her muscles constricted. She raised the stone in her hands up so she could press her lips to it.

How late she was. She could have just...told him. Could have just spoken the words that always seemed even more frightening than her own mind. They had all the time in the world, and yet she still felt that it was too late. Too far gone from something simple to just say plainly.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, although her tears were finally dried through. She had no more in her. She had promised him that she wouldn't cry; he hated it when she did. Because it was something from which he couldn't protect her.

How different would things have been? Would their lives have been so changed for a few little words? If she had pressed her lips to his skin in the light of day? So many questions, none of which would have answers. They didn't deserve them, in some ways.

Thena turned the stone over, spreading the ashes in the waters. This river was still one of the widest reaching on the planet. Gil had always wanted to travel more. He should see the world, rejoin it. The world that had loved him so much would welcome him into its ether.

Maybe she could have told him she loved him. She could have kissed him. Their hands could have met and not needed to part. If only she hadn't been a coward to herself.

She turned. Druig and Sersi looked at her, their eyes quietly assessing, asking without wanting to voice the words. She waded back to the riverbank. Her dress was heavy against her legs. Gil would have already picked her up, carried her to dry her feet.

"Thena?" Sersi barely managed to squeak out, asking how she was with just her name.

Thena just nodded. She couldn't speak yet, and not just because it was always hard for her after struggling with her Mahdness. She hadn't needed words with Gilgamesh. He always understood her.

"We should..." Druig trailed off. Even he was unable to shatter the fragile calm of the dawn around them. And Druig wasn't one to nurture the calm of anything if he didn't have to.

Thena nodded again. She wanted to say that she knew; they had to move on, they had to find the rest of themselves and face their impending deaths. And in a most selfish way, she wasn't thinking about the planet splitting apart anymore. Her nightmares seemed less important.

Sersi and Druig walked ahead, maybe out of kindness, or maybe because they couldn't stomach the sight of her grief. Sersi dragged her feet the most, half turning every third step.

Thena followed as best she could. She looked at her hand, as if to wonder where its other half was. But she stared and stared. She would get to a point where she could call forth a weapon. And she would lay waste to that creature with its vines. She would avenge her lost love. A lover never declared, never even spoken, but loved all the same.

She continued on, passing Kingo and Sprite. Sprite who couldn't even look at her in this moment. And she had never felt closer to her for it.

"Thena," Sersi tried one more time to assess more firmly what her state of being was--if she was fit for the rest of this journey. Her hand stretched out only a hair, "if-"

"Let's go." She didn't even sound like herself. But Thena walked ahead, feeling the forest floor under her feet just like she had last night. It was important for her to keep Earth under her, connected to her. At least until she had accomplished her mission, when she would leave this planet for good.

Thena blinked. Her eyes had that kind of faraway look she could get sometimes when she put herself on autopilot.

"I knew you wouldn't tell us when it was happening," Gil continued to explain why he was here. If she told him to leave he would kind of get it. But he shuffled a little closer to her, his hands in his pockets. "Because you wouldn't want to think about anyone waiting for you after it was done. But that's because you'd be nervous about getting it!--which we all knew you would."

Still no reaction.

He scratched at the back of his neck, suddenly feeling warm. "And whether you did or didn't, you'd want someone here, Thena. You can say you wouldn't, that it's the middle of the day, you don't want a big deal made out of it. But I know you. I knew you'd come here to try and take it in by yourself. And I didn't want you to be all alone on the most important day of your life."

She finally took a half a step forward, a little numb seeming. Her hand started to lower her purse off her shoulder. "G-Gil?"

He held his arms out. "Congratulations, Doctor."

Thena ran to him, pushing her face so deep in his chest it could muffle the sound of her wailing like a child. He folded her up in his embrace, happy to keep her safe like that. Thena wasn't a crier, but when she did, she had to let everything from the past year of her life out all at once.

"That's it, I'm here," he whispered to her, rubbing her back as she sobbed against his shirt, partially under the cover of his bomber jacket. "You're amazing, Thena. I'm so proud of you."

Her hands tightened into fists around the material of his t-shirt. He had asked for the whole day off of work to do this, not that he could tell her that. But he wasn't lying when he said he knew her, and that he knew that she wouldn't want to be alone for this.

She could say she would. But Thena had been working her whole life for this. Even when she had to settle into using her master's degree at the museum, when she had to focus on work, then helping Ikaris and Sersi as their relationship advanced and then crumbled. Not to mention her own.

Gil buried his nose in her hair. He should be ashamed of himself for feeling like this would relieve some of his guilt, he thought. All the times he could think of while they were together--her, trying to get work done, studying for her thesis, working at the museum. And what did he do? Did he really support her as much as he could have? No, he had his head up his own ass and had the roaring ego of a chef with something to prove to his critics. Columnists and vloggers who didn't even know his name took up more headspace than the love of his life? Pathetic.

"C'mere," he pulled her closer to him, as well as into her office in one smooth move. It was still familiar to him, in a funny kind of way. He leaned against her desk, still letting her bury herself in his chest. What better use could it have? What else was he working out for if not to let his girlfriend (tentatively) use it for her own comfort? "Let it out."

"Gil," she sniveled, catching her breath between fits.

"I'm here," her cooed into the top of her head. She shook her head faintly against his shirt. "Hm?"

She hiccuped and gasped a little. "You."

"I'm here," he repeated, but she denied it again. He grasped her white-knuckled fist in his hand, hoping to release it. "Look at me."

Her eyes were bloodshot, she probably hadn't slept a wink with all the stress of today on her mind. The corners of her eyes were a little mascara-y but he'd always said it was cute when he could see evidence of her wearing makeup from time to time. He said it made her seem girly; in retrospect he could see how she hadn't exactly liked hearing it, but he meant it in a cute way!

"Gil," she whimpered, still somehow deep within her misery. "You're here."

"I am," he assured, and it still seemed to be causing her some distress. He gulped. "You...don't want me to be."

She shook her head again, a new round of tears springing up and pushing her into his arms again. "I'm sorry!"

"What do you have to be sorry for?" he asked, not that she could answer in this particular moment. He ran his hand over her hair, doing his best to support her. He always hated it when she cried, and he still did. But now he knew to be more patient for a real answer.

She slithered her arms around him as far as they could reach. Her hands clawed at his shirt again. "I want you here."

That was...good.

"But you shouldn't be," she whispered, no strength in her voice amidst her crying. "I knew you wouldn't be. I knew it two years ago."

His heart cracked, or maybe it was like what he had used to fix that crack a long time ago dissolved again. If anything, it made it even clearer to him what a disservice he had done. He knew it could take a long time to get a doctorate--it had actually been staggering to him to learn it could take more than five on average. But he really did believe that Thena could have gotten it done sooner if she hadn't had all she'd had to deal with at the height of her workload.

"But I walked out of there today," she braved on, still squeezing him. "And I realised how much...how many things I sacrificed... "

He knew it too.

"And you shouldn't have been one of them." The statement made her start bawling again. That, he hadn't expected. He thought she might feel relieved it was over, maybe a release of frustration, even some resentment over the years of her life spent on this. But he wouldn't have expected her to be mourning their breakup in this way.

"Thena," he started, but he didn't even have the words. How could he tell her that he wanted to apologise, that he wanted her to know how amazed by her he was, and how being with her had made him question what he was doing with his own life, and hadn't that been their downfall?

"I never should have let you be alone like you were," she lamented. And he had to admit, his mind did go to more than a few nights when Thena was at work when he left the apartment and asleep when he returned. She used to try to stay up for him, but night after night after night, it was too much. And too often did he end up staying even later than he would tell her, putting in extra - unpaid - time to prove he was devoted, that he could be a good boss. Really, he wanted to prove that he could make his own sacrifices, but thinking about it now, it was to all the wrong people in his life. "I knew you wouldn't be there today, but I started crying on the spot."

"Oh, sweetheart," he sighed. He hated it when Thena cried, but she hated it even more. Thena didn't grow up in an environment that would let her cry, just like that. She had to be strong, collected, logic driven and unburdened by human things like feelings, or stress, or a bad day. She had to be like a robot (and she never appreciated it when he would joke about her being one, for good reason).

"I wanted to see you so bad," she wept, finally loosening her hold on him, "and I-I just...couldn't."

She could, though. Even if they hadn't reconnected--even if they hadn't spoken at all in the two years since splitting up, if she had called him on the day of her doctorate hearing and asked him to be there for her, he would come running. And he wasn't sure if she knew that or not, and whether that made him sad or not.

"I went to the bathroom and cried like a child," she confessed her final grievance, separating from him with a miserable little pout. She really hated it when she cried, especially in public. "I thought I had collected myself enough to return to work. But then you were here, a-and I saw you with that--that smile-!"

Gil chuckled as she more headbutted his chest than anything. But he accepted it, kissing the top of her head. "You know I'd be here for you in a heartbeat if you asked."

She whined into his chest. She hated asking almost as much as she hated crying.

He blinked as her hot breath soaked into the cotton. "Wassat?"

She emerged again to glare at him. "I said I thought about it."

He couldn't help but smile. God, he loved this woman. He really must have been at rock bottom to not see how lucky he had it when they were together. But he wasn't going to let it happen again. "I'd be there. Even if we hadn't caught up, even if we were still on the outs, I...I'd make it happen. You know that, right?"

Her eyes watered again, for a terrifying half second, but she smiled at him too. "I do know."

He inhaled, kissing her forehead in a moment of bravery and also weakness.

She accepted it. "Not sure if I would deserve it."

"Hon," he began to dissuade her from thinking negatively about it. She put her finger on his lips, and his heart jumped at the familiarity. He had told her early into dating that he thought it was cool when she did that (kinda sexy). And after he told her that, she started doing it more and more often. And wasn't that when he knew he had totally fallen for her?

Thena continued to hang her head somewhat, not totally looking down at the ground but not looking up at him either. "All the times you would try to get me out of my head, help me relax, help me try to live some of my life as it was happening. And I usually just ended up snapping at you."

He shrugged. Sure, sometimes she did end up snapping at him, and at the time, he would feel deeply put out for his romantic efforts going to waste. But thinking about it now, that was just...life. And hadn't she done the same for him?--tried to convince him to do something he liked on his day off, going out in nature, going to a new restaurant he wanted to try? And wouldn't he also just brush it off, saying he was tired or that he just didn't have the time? "We both had our things. And we're better for it now, right?"

She sighed, finally looking up at him again. Those eyes - those sparkling green eyes - finally looked a little more like they usually did. God, she looked tired, and she also looked so beautiful it took his breath away. "Right."

"I love you, Thena." He said it earnestly and honestly. It was what he felt. And whether it was the right time, or appropriate, or whatever, he wanted to say it. She deserved to hear that she was loved, and that she should be proud of her achievements. "You're incredible, and I should have been telling you that everyday."

She managed a kind of shy smile before leaning up to kiss him. Her lips were still basically on his cheek as she whispered, "you were plenty incredible yourself."

He wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her to him. She was on her toes just a little, even in her nice work heels. His butt was on the edge of her desk. But his cheek was against hers and he could hear her breathing, and that was perfect. "Come on, we should be celebrating."

Thena sniffed back the last of her outstanding emotions and extracted herself from the embrace, although he had to note that she let him leave his hands on her waist. She even cocked her hip in a kind of silent encouragement for him to leave them there. "It's four in the afternoon in the middle of the week. I wasn't exactly planning a banquet."

He grinned at her. "Oh, I know you weren't. That's why we're gonna have a very chill, very understated dinner--together."

She peeked at him through her lashes, coquettish but clearly intrigued (and so goddamn hot).

He leaned closer again, touching his forehead to hers. "I'm gonna cook your favourites, pour you a nice glass of wine, ask if any of the panelists were handsome-"

Thena snickered, "they were all in their seventies, Gil-"

"And tell you how amazing you are," he beamed at her, "whether you wanna hear it or not."

She didn't. She did and she didn't--she liked praise as much as anyone, but she was bad at receiving it. It made her uncomfortable, and kind of shy, but he found that cute, too. He was too biased about this.

"Gil," she mumbled faintly at his shoulder.

He tucked some of her hair behind her ear for her, "didn't I always tell you we'd celebrate properly when you were done with this? And the others are gonna lose it when they find out. They'll want to do something big."

"I know," she sighed, leaning into the crook of his elbow again. He let her, essentially inviting her to sprawl herself out between his legs, in his arms. It was where she rightfully belonged. "I can't face that quite yet."

"But celebrating with me is okay?" he felt the need to ask.

She got that shy look on her face again, but she let him toy with her hair in a way that was undeniably flirty. "That's the only way I would want to celebrate."

Maybe that was the last bit of encouragement he needed to make his move, but he nudged her with his knee, his hands still on her waist. He slid them up the body of her tight, white dress as he kissed her.

Thena melted into it immediately, like no time had passed since they last kissed like this. Well, they had kissed, sure, but this was...this was them. This was how he kissed her on their second date, and their third, and on every one after. This was how he kissed her when he asked her to come to Australia with him and how he had kissed her on the beach when he told her he loved her for the first time.

Gil moaned as she looped her arms around the back of his neck. It brought her closer to him by necessity, and that let him run his hands over her, his palm spreading out over her back, his other hand running through her hair and then down to her hip. If they weren't in her office, he might feel nostalgic enough to grab a handful of her backside. Not that he had never done that in her office before.

"Gil," she sighed as his lips moved to her cheek and her hands rested against his knee and the edge of her desk. So, she remembered that time, too.

"Hey, T, would you--whoa!"

Thena jumped away from him like she was lit aflame. She took the long way turning to look at Kingo. She put her hand to her lips, trying to feel if her lip tint had been disturbed mid-makeout. She was looking awfully flushed.

Gil cleared his throat, also blushing but he had to admit he felt a little smug. He also swiped at his lips, and yeah, her lip colour had come off on him just a little bit. "Uh, hey Kingo, how's...stuff?"

Kingo rolled his eyes at the both of them. "T, not that I'm not happy for you that your boyfriend's back, but I thought you had learned to at least lock this door if you have him in here."

Thena, positively red from the neck up, grabbed the papers he had brought for her. She gripped them so hard questions would definitely be asked. "Out."

"See ya 'round, Gil," Kingo chuckled, clearly having fun with his colleague just for the hell of it. He gave him a finger gun for good measure, "good to have you back."

Gil laughed faintly. He was a little embarrassed at being caught like a couple of teenagers, sure. But he had to admit, a little part of him was pretty happy that Kingo had a friendly greeting for him. It was better than the alternative, which would have been an icy reception for being Thena's ex, at best.

Thena walked around her desk, mumbling about something to the tune of 'mind his business'. She took the papers and slammed them into her drawer, and then slammed that shut with just as much force.

"Hey, it could be worse," he tried to assuage her. She gave him a stubborn glare but he just grinned at it. "Could have been Phastos catching us."

If anything, Phastos wouldn't have even teased her. They would both have refused to look at each other, let alone talk about it. Ben would probably do a little teasing, from what he had seen of his interactions with Thena so far.

She opened up a compact mirror, already swiping at her face. "I'm not going to dignify the thought."

Gil took the opportunity to watch her work. She didn't need the makeup, and she didn't need to fix it. But since she wanted to, he would enjoy his time just looking at her. "You know I meant it."

Once the darkness was out of the corners of her eyes, she blinked at him.

He leaned off her desk but let his fingers walk along the edge. It really did feel like the old days. "You, me, dinner at my place--or yours, if you want. I'll make tiramisu."

Her eyes, already brighter at the invitation, sparkled at the mention of her favourite dessert.

Gil rounded the desk, tipping her chin up to kiss her again. "It's time to celebrate, Doc. What do you say?"

Her lip wibbled a little, and he couldn't help staring as that lovely blush surfaced in her cheeks again, with her chin in his hold and no way to hide it. "If you insist."

She could be coy all she wanted. He would give her that. He leaned down to kiss her cheek slowly and firmly. "I'll go home and get some ingredients. And get changed, of course."

Thena spooked faintly, her eyes drifting down to her nice but deliberately professional attire. "I sh-"

He cut her off with another kiss. "Wear whatever you want, it'll look good. And nothing you can't get comfy in."

Her fluster doubled, and as much as he liked flirting with her, and as much as his mind also considered the possibility, he had some mercy on his sweet Thena. He cupped her cheeks, leaning in so he could whisper against the burning hot shell of her ear. "I can tell you haven't slept, Thena. You're gonna pass out right after dessert, so I don't want you to wear anything you can't sleep in."

Gil had, surprisingly, indulged her. She could remember any time he was sick when they were living together, and he was terrible about it. He was grumpy, both a terrible man-baby and also insisting he was fine and could go to work if he wore a mask and drank fluids.

Now, he was letting her keep him from sleeping, checking his pupil dilation and such. Especially considering that he didn't have the obligation of their romantic relationship now, he was shockingly cooperative.

"Good?" he mumbled, dozing off in real time since she'd kept him up all these hours since coming home from the hospital.

"Good," she sighed, setting her phone aside. Her fingers trailed through his hair a little and down his cheek before she snapped them away. She kept doing this; doing things she would do as his girlfriend and had to stop herself from now that the title was no longer hers.

"Great," he sighed, making himself fully horizontal on the couch.

Thena brushed her palms off on her leggings. She had done her due diligence, and Gil was more than wearied of her nettling. She cleared her throat, "I'll...let you get some sleep."

"Hey."

A shiver ran through her, yet another thing for which she had to scold herself. She had no right to think he sounded sexy with his sleepy voice and gravelly rumble.

But Gil was on his side on the couch, looking up at her quite expectantly. "You gonna lie down, or what?"

"Hm?" she startled at the question. It was something they would do often when they were a couple. Gil liked cuddling, even when he was pretending to be watching whatever was on the tv. And she liked being held by him. She would often doze off because she never seemed to have night terrors when they were napping together on the couch.

"C'mere," he yawned in the middle of the word and grasping for her hand.

"Gil," she smiled, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. "You should sleep. I'll-!"

Gil took his opportunity, wrapping his arm around her waist and dragging her down to the couch with him in one smooth move. He pressed her right against him, even throwing his leg over hers to secure her. He sighed, "ah, that's better."

"Gil!"

Thena squeezed her eyes shut, not that she would see anything but his t-shirt even if her eyes were open. Her temperature skyrocketed and she tried not to let her mind become too frayed. He smelled nice.

Gil nuzzled the hair at the top of her head as his body relaxed. "Just for a bit."

That meant he was going to fall asleep, and for a few hours at least.

Thena did her best to push against him, but he was so strong, and once he had his arms locked, there wasn't much she could do about it. Mortifying as it was. "Gil, I have to go."

"Why?" he whined at her. He whined a lot when he wasn't feeling good. She had forgotten that it was at least a little cute.

"And you should sleep in your bed," she scolded, knowing how loudly his shoulders would pop whenever he woke up from a couch nap.

"Hmmmm," he sighed again, still making no real effort to move. His hand rubbed her back faintly. "Your heart's really hammering."

Mortifying. Thena cursed their proximity for betraying her secret. Of course her heart was hammering! Gil had always had that effect on her.

But Gil chuckled as she pushed against him, as if she were tickling him. "I missed cuddling like this."

Thena stopped her attempts to wriggle free. It wasn't going to happen, and she was enjoying it too, in her own - selfish - way. "You did?"

Gil sighed through his nose this time, still lavishing having her bundled up against him. "Yeah, I really did. S'not comfy here without you."

"Gil," she chided him again, although she had to agree. She never laid on her sofa at her place, because without Gil, there would be no point.

She could hear him smiling, "you're soft."

She made a face to herself. She had, in fact, lost a few ounces since their breakup. Without Gil's delicious food to always draw her in, she was back to feeling a little skin and bones. "Am I?"

"I put on a few," Gil lamented, and she could see in her mind's eye the face he was making as he said it. He was always saying he would start dieting and get back into his more hardcore workouts he would do when he was younger.

She liked that he had a little softness around those crazy muscles of his. She would take his beer belly and massive biceps over a six pack of abs any day.

She had to get out of here.

"That's not such a bad thing," she whispered to him. Perhaps if she lulled him to sleep she could slip out.

"I thought Ben was your hot new boyfriend."

"What?" she couldn't help but laugh. She managed to nuzzle her face around in his chest enough to get a peek at him. He was regrettably close up - and regrettably handsome - this way, but she could at least see him. His sleepy face was utterly adorable.

"I was so bummed," he all but whimpered to her, starting to sound more and more hazy. "Here's this super hot dude, and he's talking to my Thena?--peh."

Thena bit back her amusement. Her heart was positively elated to hear him still call her 'his' again.

"But I'm glad he's nice," Gil ended, nuzzling her hair again. "And that you're not seeing anyone."

She still intended to take it to her grave that she was never going to find anyone after Gilgamesh. She had always resigned herself to that fact--that there would be no one else for her after him.

"I did."

She was aware (painfully so). Sersi and Makkari had broken it to her out of friendly kindness, hoping she wouldn't see it on social media or through their other friends and feel blindsided. She had thanked them and assured that she would be happy for Gil if he was moving forward after their breakup.

She might as well have been trying to swallow acid. She did want him to be happy, truly; that was the reason she had suggested their separation in the first place. She was taking Gil further away from his naturally happy disposition the longer they were together, and she didn't want that. She had let him go in the hopes he would be happier.

But the thought of him with another woman had made her want to shrivel up and vanish like dust in the wind. The thought of him holding, cuddling, kissing another woman the same way that was still imprinted into every cell in her body? It was too much to think about, so she just ignored it.

Her doctorate work had never been better because she refused to think about anything but work for a solid year after releasing the love of her life for his own betterment.

"But she wasn't you."

What an unfair thing to say. Thena pressed her face into his chest again, squeezing her eyes shut so she wouldn't cry. She was done crying. She had done her crying in solitude, mourning her great and only love in private so no one could convince her not to let him go.

"I called her Thena once."

"Gil," she pinched his side. He had told her this, and she would be lying if an ugly, selfish little part of her hadn't been thrilled to hear it. But it was terrible, and she had felt for the poor woman, who had deservedly stormed off.

"It just happened," he grumbled in his own self defense. "All I was doing was thinking about you anyway."

Thena pressed her forehead into the space between his pectoral muscles. "You can't say things like that."

"Why not?"

She waited, but Gil was still awake, still holding onto her. And she was still savouring it shamelessly. Well, she did feel some shame over it. "Because...we're not... "

"Back together?" he finished for her, only to make another unhappy sound, "yeah, I know."

He sounded dissatisfied with that. And she could just ask him--ask him if that was what he wanted. Or if they wanted to actually give a name to this dancing around they were doing. Pretending they were something and also nothing and weren't once everything together.

She could just ask him if he wanted to get back together. But that would defeat the purpose of her proposing their breakup in the first place. It would be a waste of her forcing herself to let Gil go in the most painful decision of her life.

"But I missed this."

Lying on the couch together, him holding her to keep the rest of the world out. Her, curled up against him without a care. Her hands grasped his shirt against his back. "I missed this, too."

"I missed you, Thena," he whispered, probably with no idea what he was doing to her (curse this amazing man). If anything, his arms tightened around her even more. "And I don't wanna let you go again."

She pressed her tears into his t-shirt. She had done her crying; this wasn't fair. "Please."

"I'm sorry," he whispered to her, perhaps in a moment of clarity. "I know we did what we did for a reason."

She squeezed him, resolving that this really would be her last time ever doing so. "I want you to be happy."

She couldn't see his face again, busy with her own tearful misery in what she thought made for a truly pathetic display of weakness. But he grasped the back of her cardigan with the same desperation.

"Then let me be with you again."

Thena held her breath. She had dreamed of something like this. Her brain's deep dark corners, still protecting a childlike love for the romantic, had thought of this. "Gil."

"I know it's selfish to ask," he confessed, sounding a little misty eyed himself. "I know we promised to move on without regrets."

She wouldn't call it a regret, or even a mistake. It was a decision she stood by, even if it had caused her irreparable heartbreak.

"But I can't," he whispered, concluding by pressing his lips to her temple in a truly unfair display. "I don't want this to be the last time I hold you."

How was her heart supposed to endure after hearing something like that? Thena let out a sigh of her own. "Oh, Gil."

"Sorry, I just wanted to say that, I guess."

His arms finally did loosen around her, having said his piece. She moved so she could see him and his eyes were still exhausted, although the bloodshot hue of them could have been from either his fatigue or their tearful conversation.

Thena leaned in, pressing her lips to his. This was what they had been avoiding. They weren't back together, but she wouldn't kiss someone she wasn't with. She wouldn't be cuddling with anyone else, and she certainly wouldn't let him visit her at work or take her out to dinner or get coffee with him if she weren't also positively aching to have his presence in her life again. She didn't care in what capacity, she had just missed him.

"What do you say?" he whispered to her between kisses.

She wished she could remain strong about it. She had let Gil go in hopes he would become the carefree, happy man she fell in love with at first. She had determined she wasn't good for him, or at least living together when they did wasn't the right decision.

"I love you."

She most certainly shouldn't have said that. But it just tumbled out of her, like she had intended to do nothing but take her next breath and it was the same thing as telling Gil that she loved him. She loved him with her whole heart, every bit of her, she loved him more than she should have.

Gil buried his face against her neck but she could feel him smiling as he left another kiss there. "I love you too, sweetheart."

Her heart clenched. It was bittersweet, but maybe more sweet than bitter. Maybe she only thought it was bitter because depriving herself of him all this time had been for nothing.

But that wasn't necessarily true, either. They were different from when they had dated at first. Their whirlwind romance evolving too quickly for their everyday lives to adapt. Her brother's volatile breakup, their jobs, too many outside pressures on something too new and precious to withstand it all at once.

"Hey."

Thena blinked the last of her tears away, looking at him, both of them still sideways.

Gil moved some hair from her cheek, his eyes more clear than they were before. "Look, this can be just between us. Nice and slow--no rush."

She laughed faintly. He always was good at reading her, in a way no one else in the world could. She let another kiss suffice as her answer.

And Gil understood, as he always had. Because he was Gil, and there had never been anyone more perfect for her. His hand massaged the back of her head.

She moaned into the kiss, and when she moaned, he moaned. She pulled away, feeling her cheeks warm again.

He chuckled, though. "Okay, okay, fine. But you've been up all night now, too. So, you gonna sleep with me, or what?"

Thena pressed her blushing into his chest again. She was so much more of a mess, than the first time. Her heart was more jumpy, her nerves were more obvious. Because she didn't just want Gil to like her for the first time. She already knew how perfect he was. Now, she wanted to hold onto him desperately, like the koalas they saw on their trip to Australia. "Flirt."

Gil stretched out, getting truly comfortable. He shifted closer to the back of the couch, pulling her against him again. "What can I say? I've been seeing someone new and I'm, uh, kinda really into her."

Thena did smile at that. She followed Sersi through the motions, mostly having done so since they arrived in London. She had so much to learn about appearing human--she needed practice before heading back to Australia.

They had taken their time leaving the Americas after their reunion at Ajak's old place. Gilgamesh was happy to take his time going home as well. He too had more of the human world to see after his years of isolation.

Sersi grabbed a papery feeling towel for herself and handed one to Thena. "Have you and Gil done anything like this yet?"

The Warrior Eternal shook her head. Not anything quite this...complex, rather. When she and Gil wanted food, he would mostly go to the trouble of procuring it himself. She preferred the privacy of eating just the two of them. Perhaps she should have suggested a 'date' earlier on.

"Dane and I have been on a few dinner dates. You can do other things, too, though. We've been to the cinema, some of the other museums or galleries here."

Dane was a human Sersi had met and befriended. Well, that made it sound like Dane was a stray animal; Sersi was rather fond of this man. Thena had to admit she was surprised upon hearing her sister had an interest in getting to know, well...anyone.

"Does he know they're actual memories to you?" Thena asked, only somewhat in jest. Sersi gave her a dry look for it, amusing her all the more. "What happened to moving out of London, soon?"

The Alchemist Eternal turned a little sheepish, her lips pinching faintly. They had a reddish colour for the evening. "I did consider it, especially with Sprite wanting to see more of the world, too."

Sprite was currently experiencing the world the way Makkari experienced the world: rapidly, and dragging Druig along behind them.

"But Dane is sweet," Sersi said with some genuine feeling. Thena wasn't sure what exactly the feeling was, but it was there. "He's calm, nervous in some ways but quite sure of himself in others. And I just want to get to know someone...for once."

Thena just nodded. She had expressed her worries about Sersi's state of mind, in London all these years. When she had first returned, there was just too much to do. Plus, she had only been so willing to talk with her sisters with Eros' presence lingering.

"There you are," Dane greeted upon their arrival back at the table. He stood and moved Sersi's chair for her. It was a little much, but Thena had to admit she found it amusing in its attempt at charm.

Gilgamesh had no need to stand. He grasped her chair with one hand and moved it further than a human would really be capable of without great effort.

She seated herself, leaning towards him to whisper, "restraint."

"I am," he whispered back, but she could already hear him grinning. With her seated again, he pushed the chair back without even thinking about it. "I didn't pick it up, now did I?"

She shook her head, but she was admittedly having fun. She'd had some hesitation when Sersi suggested going to dinner together. Not only because she and Gil mostly spent their time away from the public eye.

But Sersi insisted they must! So she'd made a 'reservation', which would stake their territory in the restaurant (that was new to Thena). Then she had insisted they get ready together. Thena wasn't sure what that really entailed, but it was mostly for fun, as she had learned. Sersi had put on music in her flat, chosen dresses for them both. She even insisted on doing something with Thena's hair.

Thena wasn't entirely sure how necessary any of it was, but Sersi was having fun. And she was happy to spend the time with her sister, free of missions and ex/late husband worries and even the weight of eternity. The hour spent 'getting ready' was a very human time.

"I ordered the sea bass for you," Dane patted Sersi's hand as she unfolded her napkin just to place it over her lap. "And a glass of white."

"Thank you," she beamed, also letting her hand linger in his.

Thena glanced at the hands engaged in flirtation, and then to the man adjacent to her. The table was a square, placing each of them on a solitary side. She could easily lean closer to Gil by the corner, but it felt quite separated, in her mind. Perhaps she had indulged too much, constantly in his arms, sitting in his lap and sleeping against his shoulder.

He caught her eye, and it seemed he thought the distance was quite far as well. His smile was somewhat lamenting, but he offered his hand in the same manner. She slid her hand into his, and his expression lightened. "I'm such a bad husband."

Thena just blinked, while Sersi's head whipped around at them so quickly her hair bounced (and to their ears, they heard some of her vertebrae pop).

Gilgamesh looked only at Thena, though, bringing her hand up to his lips. "Haven't even taken you on a proper date like this yet."

Thena relished the small feeling of his lips on her hand. Perhaps she could understand the lovesick behaviours her family had once displayed; Sersi and Ikaris lingering, flirting openly, Druig and Makkari huddling close and whispering to themselves. She had once wondered what the need for it was, and now here she felt herself missing the presence of someone right next to her.

"Well, that's common for married couples, isn't it?" Dane suggested, both as conversation and in Gilgamesh's defense. "You get used to the routine of things and you go out less often. But that's exactly what's so great about being on holiday--all the time in the world."

Dane had no idea. But Thena smiled at the human man, "indeed. And is every meal we share together not a date?"

Sersi had been the one to introduce them as husband and wife to Dane. Thena had asked her about it in a moment of respite. According to her sister, she and Gilgamesh were impossible to pass off as a couple who had not been together for a long time, even by human standards.

She wasn't sure it was inaccurate, either. Surely if there were a term for 'partner of thousands of years' for humans, being married was the closest the mortal species had achieved for themselves.

"Yeah, but it's nice to get all fancied up I guess," Gilgamesh continued just as lightly, even holding his hands out to admire the dark green suit jacket he was wearing.

Sersi had been somewhat aghast to discover they didn't exactly have luggage on this lengthy trip of theirs. They just didn't need it the way humans did, though. At the very least, they didn't think it was necessary to include anything they would only wear once based on the appropriateness of a formal setting.

"Gil and I had a good time this afternoon," Dane supplied readily.

"What did you two talk about?" Sersi asked immediately, and perhaps too eagerly. Really, she eyed her brother, anxious to find out what he possibly could have said to her precious, innocent human.

Gil shrugged though, wearing a blithe - borderline but not quite innocent - smile. "Just normal stuff, really. Beer, Dane told me about the football here. It's different from the football Phastos showed us."

"I do not know why they call it that there," Thena injected with a frown. "They don't use their feet in that other game much at all."

Sersi rolled her eyes. "Don't get him started on it."

"Are you two headed elsewhere after this stop?" Dane managed to dodge the urge to explain why American football was an abomination. "Gil mentioned Fiji."

Thena looked at her other half fondly. He had been captivated by the idea solely to see what it was like. In truth, it might be like plenty of other corners of Earth they had already seen. But if he wanted to see it, Thena was happy to join him. "We'll make it a later stop. We do have a house to build."

"Building a house?" Dane's brows rose, turning his head between Gil and Thena.

Sersi tugged at his sleeve as she slouched back in her chair. "Repairing a house, rather. Gil's is...in a state of neglect."

"It's a bit of a long story," he laughed, again swerving around the true story of how his house had been a bachelor pad for hundreds of years, built specifically to avoid humanity. "Basically, I've gotta make a few upgrades."

Thena tilted her head at him, "I think the house is charming just as it is."

Gil turned his attention to her completely. "It can stand to improve. And I mostly need to expand the bedroom."

Because it had been little more than a hovel, full of journals and with only a basic mattress on the floor.

Dane had no knowledge of this, though, showing a bit of bashfulness at how openly he said it. He leaned closer to Sersi, whispering, "your brother is quite the romantic."

Of course all Eternals present heard him. But Sersi smiled down at the floor, still trailing her fingers around Dane's watch just to feel the warmth of his skin. "He is. And he'd build a castle for Thena, if she'd let him."

But Thena didn't want a palatial home for them. They didn't need it. And she wanted to live in Gil's home as he had--make up for lost time, as she had put it.

The Warrior Eternal bristled, feeling multiple bodies approach. She turned in her seat, her hand on the armrest, her other clenched in a fist.

"Easy." Gilgamesh put his hand over hers, placating and also letting her feel how heavily he did so. "They're bringing our food."

Thena eyed the humans, one on either side of the table, between them. One leaned down between her and Gil, setting down their plates of food while their mouths moved, spewing small, needless words like 'here you are', and 'need anything else' and some such.

"This looks lovely," Sersi declared upon receiving her meal and sitting up in her chair. She looked at Thena across the table.

"Lovely," she smiled as well, parroting her sister for the show of it. It seemed to work, though, assuring the humans that there was no need for anything else. Once they were gone, though, she leaned closer to her other half. "What is the need to separate us?"

Gil chuckled, already unfurling his cutlery as he stared at the steak. "I don't think it was on purpose, hon. Humans don't think about every little move they make like that."

Pitiful, Thena thought; poor creatures didn't have the brain power to consciously position their bodies at all times. She picked up her own cutlery, more observing Sersi than moving naturally.

Sersi held her eyes. Her left hand moved with the fork while the right moved her knife, slicing through her delicate fish. She raised her eyebrows.

"Hm," Thena looked away, cutting into whatever dish Gil had ordered for her. She had no idea what it was, but he knew what she liked, and he always ordered for her. Menus were just a mess of words humans hadn't conceived last time she spent any time on the planet. If left to her own devices, she would only order things with fruits in their description.

"Here."

She looked up, happy to accept a bite of Gil's meal before he had even tried it for himself. "Hm."

"Good?"

"Hm."

Dane leaned close to Sersi, again. "Were those different answers?"

"Yes," she snickered back to him, knowing full well her family could hear them.

Thena ignored it, though. They had played by the rules of humans thus far. Now, she wanted to enjoy her meal. Which, for her, meant leaning as close to Gil as she could. They both held up their forks, more feeding each other their own meals than indulging in the plates in front of them.

"Have they always been like that?"

Mother had discovered that some of her books were out of order and had demanded the library and any other books in the house be re-organised--and re-catalogued.

Thena had been included in that order, having to allow all her shelves to be purged, dusted, rearranged. The books of her mother's she had purloined for herself in secret had to be hastily shoved back into the library. It was her own fault, really.

She was unfortunately quite addicted to those lascivious romance novels. Terrible things not made for the light of day, but Thena couldn't stop reading them. Or rather, she couldn't stop reading them partially, and then setting them aside to attend to her own needs.

It was a near nightly occurrence, and no one could know.

Mother would never forgive her if she found out Thena was reading 'filth', no matter if it was in their own library. And if Gil were to ever discover it...Thena would rather burn the manor to the ground.

"You should go to your room," she said to Gil gently under the candlelight. "Get some sleep. I'm sure I can find it by morning."

"I don't mind helping you look, Thena, really," he assured her, nudging the back of her hand with the back of his. "The last time Ma had my room 'rearranged' I was pissed. Took me forever to find where my own stuff was again."

Thena smiled. She wasn't allowed to say if something 'pissed her off' but she always liked it when Gil spoke unabashedly with her. She looked at her shelves. "It may be too mammoth a task, I fear."

"Well," Gil stood, stretched his arms and back. He had long ago taken off his suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. The candlelight spread about the room illustrated the angles and lines of his muscles in his arms and under his black, silken shirt. It was quite a feast for the eyes. He held out his hand, "you'll just have to remember what you thought of it without."

Thena accepted his assistance. She stepped out of her little fae circles of stacks and stacks of books, brushing off the skirt of her white dress as she did. "I believe I can remember most of what I had to say about it. You always pick good stories to share."

He smiled at that, maybe also thinking about how dear this little shared secret had become for them. They traded books either in person or by post if their fathers provided no excuse for them to visit in person. Then they would share their thoughts via their carriers.

Mandu was an excellent carrion. Thena thought Pearl had become so tired of being sent with notes and letters that she was actually refusing to face forward in her cage as soon as Thena entered the room.

Both startled at the sound of a book tumbling to the ground.

Theseus was lazing on her desk, though. He stretched upward, as if to ask why he hadn't been taken back to his tank for the warmth of sleep already.

Thena blinked, broken from her saccharine thoughts of the young man beside her. "S-Sorry, Theseus, of course."

The reptile eyed her, although he allowed his massive body to be picked up and transported back to his sun lamp tank. He closed his eye, leaning against her.

Thena smiled down at her beloved companion. "Forgive me, I shouldn't have lost my head."

He all but sighed once finally on his nice, warm rock, already dozing off.

Thena turned back to her desk, only to feel horror run through her. "No-!"

Gil looked at her, the book in his hands. He had clearly picked it up thinking it was the book for which they had been looking tirelessly. And it did look like it could be it--midsize, leatherbound. But the shade of red wasn't quite right.

Thena dreaded to think she would turn the same vibrant red as the book's spine. "That's not-"

Gil snapped the book closed, his jaw bobbing. "I-I'm sorry."

"I-" Thena tried and failed to get a single word out. What could she say? That it wasn't her literary filth? That it was her mother's but she had been lured in and seduced by the sin of wordly passion?

"I-I didn't mean to-" Gil also stuttered, surely also mortified at the discovery. He held the book in his hand. "I thought-"

Thena tried to think of anything to excuse the book's entire existence, but it was too late. It wasn't as if any lie of any kind would suffice. And impossible as it was, her mind screamed that he would know what that book made her think about - made her do - every night she read it.

"Thena," Gil tilted his head.

She turned away, completely unable to face him.

"Hey," he whispered, coming right over to her, as Gil would. He put his hands on her shoulders. "Hey, it's okay."

She shook her head, pressing her hands to her temples to keep him from seeing her in her shame.

"I'm sorry Thena, I didn't mean to see," Gil whispered to her.

He had seen, hadn't he? He had seen the evidence sitting on her desk, where she would usually write her letters to him, even sitting next to the perfume she would spritz on every page on pure whim.

"It's not bad, y'know," he attempted to coax her out of her humiliation. She could feel him trying to turn her around. "We all have, uh, stuff...we do... "

Stuff, he said, so gently. And yet her mind only offered horror as she pictured herself writhing in her own bed. Her hands on her own skin, nightdress half off, biting her lip as Gil's name graced her lips.

"I-I, uh," Gil continued to try. But what could he possibly say? Yes, it was reasonable to think that anyone may have their own method of vice, even in matters as mortifying as this. But what would he share just to mollify her suffering?

"I-It's okay, Gil," she choked out, finding her throat tight and dry as a bone. She sniffled, hoping she wouldn't add crying to her list of indignities tonight. "I'm sorry you s-saw-"

"Thena, it's okay," he pressed, sounding more stern about it now. "It's natural."

Nothing about this was natural. Nothing was natural about having the person she loved most in the entire world finding something she was too ashamed to let even the sun see. Something she truly thought she would take to the grave.

"Will you just look at me?"

"I can't," she squeaked out, still feeling hot from the chest up, nearly trembling as she toyed with the sleeves of her long, soft cardigan in her palms. She bit her lip, "could you look at me if I...?"

Silence followed, and she assumed she had won.

"You should go to your room, Gil," she suggested, begging him silently to leave her to her embarrassment. Leave her to this thing that they could never pretend didn't happen, never forget, possibly never move forward from properly.

"Look at me."

Thena sighed. Stubborn, sweet, caring Gilgamesh, who would never let her suffer alone, even if it was disgrace. Even if it was from her own doing. She turned slowly, staring at the ground.

He leaned forward.

Thena blinked as he kissed her. She had never been kissed. She had only read about it, and perhaps thought about it. Perhaps she had dreamed and thought of lips with a developing moustache over them, kissing her like in her books.

She had intended to resist, not wanting to be persuaded from her misery. But then her eyes drifted closed, she lost herself in the feeling of Gil's lips against her own. Her knees buckled.

Gil's arms snaked around her completely. He held her like it was the most natural thing in the world. He held her, her back arched, her knees swaying like grass and supporting her with his endlessly kind strength.

Thena pulled herself back like emerging from frigid water. What was happening? And why? She didn't want his pity, even if it came in the sinful form of her first - and she was determined, only - kiss. "What are you-?"

Gil did look a little harried. Sometimes he looked at her like she would imagine a character in one of her novels would--so sure of what he wanted, what he thought and said. But she also liked these looks, when Gilgamesh's thoughts were scrawled across his face before he could stop them.

"I love you."

What terrible timing this amazing boy had. Thena stared at him, her jaw now bobbing, although she was searching for the words. She was searching for a way to voice her horror to him.

"I-I'm not just saying that," he urged her to believe. His hands moved along her back, against the thin white linen of her dress. "Because I think I should, or because of that book."

She bristled just at the reminder of it.

But Gil held her tighter, "I mean it, Thena. I...I love you. I've been in love with you since the day we met."

Her eyes watered. She had dreamed of hearing those words, both awake and in her sleep. But none of those dreams had involved such a horrifying beginning to the confession.

"I really have," Gil whispered, candlelight still flickering off his dark hair and supple skin. "I've loved you all this time. A-And I wasn't going to tell you until you were ready. U-Until I thought...maybe you liked me too-"

Liked him? She was stark raving mad in love with him. She was terrifyingly in love with him, so much so that it had turned her into some creature obsessed with satisfaction at the cost of imagining her friend in positively indecent hallucinations.

"But I really love you, Thena," he resolved, whispering it before leaning in to kiss her again. It was softer, sweeter, slower than before. He took his time, as if she would understand what he was saying better the more they kissed. "And I...I think about you, too."

She pushed against his chest. He let go, looking positively flushed. At least he matched her now, in that sense. She set her jaw stubbornly, "I-I never said I thought of you."

She really was a terrible liar.

Whether he believed her or not, Gil went back to talking about himself. "I do--think of you, I mean."

She narrowed her eyes at him. She had been exposed enough tonight already; it was his turn.

He gulped, hands flexing on her waist nervously. "I-It was just dreams, at first."

Thena shivered, familiar with the idea of things starting beyond one's control. But then once it was within her control, she didn't exactly give it up, now did she?

Gil licked his lips, staring down at hers the way Theseus would eye a fly on the wall. "I felt bad. I shouldn't be, I thought. But I would dream about kissing you. Holding you...then it was-"

Thena blinked as she felt pressure against her belly.

"It was more," Gil whispered, his voice becoming rough. His eyes returned to hers, shining yet still dark. "I dreamed we were kissing. My hand was in your hair. We were in my bed."

Thena felt her hair stand on end and the pressure increase. She had thought it was her--butterflies, or some such nonsense. But she knew what butterflies felt like, and this was an external feeling.

Gilgamesh flushed even deeper, but he was still holding her. "That dream...I woke up from it. And I, uh, I did some laundry."

Her eyes widened, and she scolded herself for it. For all she had flailed over her own shame being exposed here she was reacting viscerally to Gil confessing of his own volition.

"You're not the only one - who's thought of it - I-I mean," he swallowed, and it sounded incredibly loud. His eyes finally dashed away, from her eyes her lips, all of her. They darted around. "Sorry."

But Thena held onto him, even when his hands released and he made even the faintest move to step away from her. She leaned closer, feeling that solidity between them.

Gil squirmed. "Thena-"

She kissed him. She leaned up and pressed her lips to his. She wasn't certain if she had the technique he had possessed. It was horrifying to imagine he would pull away and tell her she really wasn't that good at it. But he did no such thing, leaning into her again--holding her again.

Gil moaned. It was a beautiful sound, really. She moaned in response, although hers sounded needier to her own ears. His hands ran over her back again. He leaned forward. Their feet tangled, legs stumbling.

Thena gasped as their knees collided, the back of hers meeting her bed. She fell backwards, pulling Gil with her. Her hair splayed out, her cardigan slipped from her shoulders, exposing a strap fallen from its place.

Gil held himself above her, their upper halves laid out. He was panting from their kiss. He looked handsome even from this angle.

Thena forced her thoughts to quiet, reaching up for him again. She wasn't sure what her end goal could be said to be. She just wanted to keep kissing him.

They both moaned as Gil laid over her again. He leaned forward, his knee on the edge of the bed between her knees. His hand moved from her back to her hair. "Thena."

She gasped again, and he moved his lips from hers to her cheek, and then to her neck. She made a new sound, something of a gasp, a moan. It was a visceral reflex, but she had the passing, silly thought that she hoped it sounded sexy.

Maybe it did, because Gil clambered onto the bed with her. They were clumsy with it, her bed too wide and too plush to let them slide into anything smoothly. He stretched out over, though.

Her hands ran over him, his shirt being pulled against the bend of his muscles. How often had she imagined sinking her nails into those muscles? How often had she imagined what they would look like, like this, with only candlelight and her hands to touch them?

She whimpered as she felt that pressure against her again. And she realised it was Gil--part of Gil. She pulled away from his lips, only briefly. Her eyes darted down and then back up.

"Sorry," he grunted, sounding more pained to stop kissing her than about his arousal. He made a face like he was truly in pain as he started to pull away from her. "We can st-"

Thena dragged him back down into another kiss. She didn't want to stop. She didn't even want to think. She wanted to continue barrelling forward.

Gil's hands found her body, and maybe he had imagined this just as much as she had. He certainly felt adept at it, as far as she was concerned. His hand trailed from her neck to her shoulder, and then to begin unbuttoning her dress. "Are you sure?"

Thena bit her lip. She had never so much as not worn stockings around Gilgamesh. But she busied herself with touching him as he freed her from her clothes. She unbuttoned his shirt in return. The width of his chest, the hair there--it made her dizzy.

Gil looked down at her, decolletage revealed to him. His eyes were dark and hazy, face flushed, chest heaving. "Can I...can I see them?"

Thena shivered. She let him pull her dress down her shoulders and off her waist, though. It was pulled off her legs in one fell swoop. Her throat clamped closed, although she was still breathing heavy, her heart pounding.

"Wow."

She blushed from head to toe, it felt like. She didn't even try to cover herself, just felt as if he was staring at something far more revealing than even her naked body. She at least pressed her thighs together as best she could.

Gil dove in again, kissing her with renewed vigor. He moaned directly into her mouth, their tongues creating a shared stage for the sound.

Thena felt feverish, and she sounded feverish as his shirt buttons scraped against her freshly revealed skin. Her hips rolled against him of their own accord, begging for something she didn't know how to ask for. She dug her nails into his shirt. "This seems unfair."

"You're right," he whispered roughly. Again, he was loath to part with her, craning his neck to kiss her until the very last second. He ripped his own shirt off, tossing it aside. Then his hands moved to his belt.

Thena watched as he undid it, tossing the thing down in his haste. His trousers followed easily, and then she was eye to eye with it. Of all the books she had read describing the thing, she hadn't been able to truly picture it.

Gil cleared his throat, returning to her with his own charmingly flushed skin. "Look, I know I'm no thing of beauty like you, but you don't have to stare at it like that."

She bit her lip. Gil seemed to take her smiling as a bad thing but she pulled his cheeks in to kiss him again. "You have your own beauty. And it is...quite handsome, I think. If my books are to be believed."

Gil pulled away to make a face. He was usually the one flattering her. But he softened, his eyes travelling around her face, her hair, what of her he could see while pressed right up against her. "Do you want this?"

Her body thrummed with excitement. She nodded.

His eyes were wide, though, pleading with her. He moved his hand to brush some hair away from her face. "Really, Thena, I need you to be sure. I couldn't live with myself if-"

Thena pulled him in to kiss him again. She smiled, their lips still sharing the same air. "I love you too, Gil. And I want you."

She didn't really know how to say it. The books described it as 'being intimate', or fucking, or having sex, sometimes as making love. But she didn't know what described this best. Because this wasn't some novel with practically interchangeable characters. This was her life, and Gil's life, and Gil was too special for anything disingenuous.

Gil kissed her even more sweetly than before. He held her like she was such a precious thing. Their bodies, truly uncovered now, meshed together. Softness and muscle and warmth and a faint sheen of developing sweat. "Just breathe."

She almost asked why he was directing her. But she gasped as she felt his fingers push against her. Her head turned away, dragging in air even more desperately. "Gil!"

"Thena," he whispered back. His fingers pushed into her, waving a few times.

She could feel them, how thick they were. His fingers were strong, his knuckles were rough. It wasn't anything like how it felt to touch herself in such a way.

She held her hands on his chest and over his shoulder, her back arched and hips rolled. His fingers commanded her body to move, to respond to his touch. "Gil, w-wait, I...I-!"

"What's wrong?" he whispered to her, although his fingers didn't exactly stop. "Does it feel good?"

"Yes," she answered before she could even stop herself. She wasn't supposed to say it was good. Her hips weren't supposed to be moving with a mind of their own, all but begging him for more. They weren't supposed to be broadcasting her desperation like this.

"Then relax," he whispered to her, increasing his speed.

Thena whimpered, biting her lip. It felt quite good--too good. She squeezed his shoulder as well as she could within her hand, the muscle too large to be held completely. "It's not...I'm not-"

"You're not what?" he whispered, and now he did stop, his hand completely pausing.

Thena groaned. This was almost worse. But she did her best to collect her thoughts. "I'm not supposed to...finish like this."

Gil didn't resume his movements. He shuffled a little, moving so he could look at her instead of having her head nestled down under his chin. He raised an eyebrow.

Thena gulped, feeling herself pulse around his fingers even in their frozen state. Her earlier embarrassment returned and her eyes fled his. "It's...I don't want to be done....like this."

"What do you mean, done?"

She grumbled, doing her best to return to the safety of his neck, where she wouldn't have to look at him. Her breath was still high and reedy. "I mean...I want to finish...together."

She was back to being red from the neck up. Maybe this was trite of her. Maybe that kind of thing only happened in her silly little perverted novels, and saying something like this was going to turn Gil off from her completely.

She blinked as Gil kissed her forehead. She looked up at him, breathing heavy, hair mussed and starting to cling to her skin. She pursed her lips. "It's not funny."

"It's not," he assured her immediately. "It's really cute."

That was much worse than him laughing at it.

But he kissed her again. "I wanna finish together too, Thena. But I want you to, uh, finish at least once before that."

One could 'finish' more than once? In the books it was always over after they finished. The scene was done, chapter would transition to the next. She simply didn't think it was possible.

Gil moved his other hand, dragging it until he could grasp her thigh, bending her leg faintly. He looked at her with a toothy grin. "I finish at least three times a night when I think about you."

Heat exploded from within her. Whether it was at the thought of Gil pleasuring his own needs the way she had thought was completely unspeakable for herself to do. Or if it was because he resumed moving, pumping his fingers within her even faster.

"Gil!" she moaned. Her body was moving too, rocking against his motion on her bed like a boat bobbing against the waves. She could feel her stomach knot, her breasts moving faintly, the way she was clinging to Gil to feel him as close as possible. "It's...I'm...Gil-!"

Her knees collided, jolting together as that finish came over her. Her hips ached, her back curled, her toes spread. Her moans started and then were swallowed up, his lips coming to claim them. Her hands dragged all over his body, wherever they could reach.

Gil moaned in response, like a bird assuring its mate it was near. His hips rolled too, and that same, stiff pressure was still there.

Thena panted as he pulled away. She stared up at her ceiling, realising her vision was out of focus. She had never managed to climax so completely, not even on her best nights.

Gil nudged her cheek with his nose, leaving an open kiss there. He pulled his hand up, trailing his finger over her lip and then popping them into his mouth. "Like that?"

She couldn't answer that. Even if it weren't because he was teasing her, she had never done it quite like that. She didn't think she could. His fingers were stronger, if not longer than thicker, rougher. They were everything she had imagined they would be.

Gil kissed her cheek again. "Do you want more?"

She nodded, even if she couldn't find the words yet. She was still gripping him, as if the second he left her bed this would all turn out to be her best and worst dream yet. She tried to roll over into his embrace, but he was too heavy, and she was too sated.

He rolled over her, pressing his hardness against her belly again. It made them both groan. "You are so beautiful."

Thena inhaled sharply as he kissed down her clavicle and then to her breasts. She had never thought anything of them. But Gil lavished them with attention, kissing, licking them, trailing until he could take her nipple between his lips and flatten his tongue against it just to feel how firm it was. "Ah!"

Gil peeked up at her in a way that made her feel the worst case of butterflies she had ever felt. But he didn't stay long, winking before going to her other breast. He teased this nipple differently, but just as expertly.

"H-How-" Thena's breath caught and she tried to collect herself. "How are you so good at this?"

He chuckled, and for a split second she could imagine him practicing with someone else. Some nameless, faceless young lady who was the subject of his charming smiles and touches.

The immediate rush of hot to cold and back to hot made her whole body shake.

"Dreams," he answered, though. He left her breasts and returned to her lips. "You are in all of my dreams, Thena."

Her jaw dropped and her head rolled back as she felt him poking between her legs. She never imagined what it could feel like. This touch was so different from her hand, or even his. It was searing hot, made her tremble with excitement and fear and something in between.

Gil moaned the loudest yet as he started to push into her. His legs dragged around against her sheets, his adam's apple bobbed as he gasped and gulped in air. He clenched his teeth.

Thena tried to breathe. Her body tightened at the invasion, like nothing she had ever felt before, no matter how welcome. Her muscles were not exactly untouched, but never like this. He continued until their pelvises met, unable to go further. She gasped desperately. He was filling her completely, no room for anything else, including thought. "Gil!"

He breathed heavily, pacing himself. It sounded like he was trying to run a great distance above her. He managed to drag his head back to a position where he could look at her. "Th-Thena?"

"Gil," she whimpered, unable to do anything else. She could never have conceived what it would actually feel like to have Gil inside of her. It burned, it seared, it hurt, but it also felt so good she might never be sane again.

He puffed and grit his teeth as she wrapped her legs around him. "That's it. J-Just breathe."

Oh, she was breathing. She was breathing harder than she ever had in her life. And she felt good. "More."

Asking flipped a switch in him. His hips starting moving. They flinched, drawing back swiftly at first until Gil managed to grab a hold of himself.

Thena panted as he started moving, rocking against her. He moved gently, refusing to hurt her. Her muscles adjusted, her insides reacting to the bounds of their movement to accept him. The more they moved, the better it got. She could feel the heat of his skin, the heat inside of her. She felt her breasts against his ribs, and the scrape of his hair every time their hips joined.

Gil kissed her as much as he could, but his head would throw back, in pleasure and for air. His hips were still trying to fight through his control over himself. "Thena, fuck, this is--I love you, fuck, I love you!"

"Gil, yes, love-" she couldn't even get the words out. Her brain had been reduced to a pot boiling over a fire, and the fire was building.

He looked at her, even amidst their passions. He fumbled for her hand. "How do you do it?"

She blinked. "Hm?"

He moved her hand between them. His hips pulled back just enough as his position changed. He moved her hand with his. "What do you do?--to finish?"

Thena gulped. That was between her and her own blasphemous imagination, wasn't it? And yet, as he started moving again, her hand was already joining in. It massaged her lips around where Gil was joined with her, attached in an inconceivable way.

Gil took over, putting his hands on her thighs, letting his thumbs take over for her fingers. "This?"

Thena threw her head back this time. It was too much--it was entirely too good. "Gil, I'll-"

"Good," he grunted, letting his hips return to their first, frantic rhythm. "And here?"

Thena bit into her lip again as her hand find that collection of nerves. She rubbed above it, alternating against the strokes of Gil within her. His would thrust up, she would rub down, her breasts would ricochet from every movement without his firmer chest to cushion them.

"Fuck, Thena," Gil panted, thrusting his hips against hers, shaking her bed, holding himself above her as they both sped towards their end. "Come with me."

Where was he going? She wanted to be there too. Thena moaned, her eyes squeezed shut as she rubbed in counterclockwise circles. "Yes, yes, yes!"

In all her books, the man finished first, and she would follow. But Thena's whole body jerked as she finished, clamping around Gil's thickness inside of her. It was so different, having something there, drawing out the waves of pleasure from within her. Her hips bucked and rolled, even more when she felt Gil shoot into her.

He groaned up at her ceiling. It sounded painful for him. But he was undoubtedly feeling what she felt as his hips drove into hers, something even more molten hot than just his length extending into her body, fusing like molten metal.

Thena gasped, trying to think. She felt on the verge of passing out, like she would awaken completely ascended from her very life on earth. The most she managed was opening her eyes.

Gil collapsed over her. He was so heavy, those muscles of his so dense. Her hands did their best to creep over him, holding him to her. What happened next?

She had had her first kiss, her first truly horrible secret revealed, and finished for real for the first time, all in a single night. And no one could ever know.

Gil did manage to lift himself off of her enough for her to breathe deeply again. He pulled himself to the side, pulling her with him by the waist. "A-Are you okay?"

Thena blinked at him, coming into focus in her hazy vision. She just nodded, still too stunned. Her lips moved naturally as he kissed her again.

"I love you, Thena, I really do," Gil whispered to her, already desperate sounding as if she had denied believing him. "I loved you before all this, too."

She laughed faintly--breathlessly. She pulled away, her hand on his cheek. "I certainly hope there is some love involved, now that we are in my bed together."

Gil didn't laugh at her joke, just kissed her harder. He whispered against her lips, "now that we've made love, you mean?"

He turns, examining the damage around them. This was the biggest Deviant they've faced as of yet. It's not just large, it's several times larger than anything else. Part of him wonders why this one was so different, but that's not something he can get swept up in for now.

A breeze appears beside him and Makkari is there, looking at it. She tilts her head at him. Is it dead?

"I think so," he mutters. He kicks a few stones out of his way - Phastos will not be happy about the destruction to the wall and main gate - to look closer. He nudges its wiry body with his boot. "Seems to be."

"Let's not tempt fate," Kingo laments as he joins them, stretching as if his powers demand that kind of exertion from him. Ikaris flies overhead, as if everything they've just achieved doesn't concern him.

Gilgamesh sighs as he looks at the thing. Its body is huge, and it's going to be a pain in the ass to drag it away from the city for its body to decompose. And it's so heavy, he's really the only one who could move it. The others can help, of course, but he just knows he's going to be the one dragging this thing up a sand dune.

"I'll help."

He smiles before he can even think about it. Not just for the offer, but because she knew what he was thinking. She always seems to. "I can't let you do that."

Thena looks as nonplussed as ever. "You do not let me do anything."

He throws his head back in a laugh. That's for damn sure. No one lets the Warrior Eternal do anything, not even their Prime (much to Ajak's occasional distress).

She smiles when he laughs. "It should not be up to you. I'm sure Sersi can transmute something to help transporting it easier."

Gilgamesh nods. They have technology well beyond this world at their fingertips, but Ajak won't allow them to influence humanity's natural evolution like that. He can kind of see what Phastos is always complaining about.

"There is time to rest first," she says just a little more softly. She's being gentle with him after their long fight. Her steps match his stride for stride, even slowing when he does.

His steps drag as he looks around inside. They were lucky the gate took the brunt of the damage, really. The homes and buildings inside the city walls are less demolished than those outside.

"Gil."

He blinks, finding his arm colliding with hers. Not that she chastises him for it, but he leans away from her hand on his shoulder, "sorry."

Maybe the fight took more out of him than he thought.

"You always bring down the big ones for us."

That makes his eyebrows raise. Thena isn't usually one to downplay her part in something, especially something she loves as much as fighting. "It's a team effort."

"Still, the power you exert to land a killing blow is different from the rest of us," she reasons in a way that's oddly conversational for her. Of course, if it were anyone else trying to take up her personal space, she would tell them to go straight to Ajak.

Gilgamesh chuckles though. "It was a good fight. And everyone came out from it pretty unharmed."

"Hm." Thena goes back to her usual silent self. She hasn't moved away from him any, though. She's not exactly encouraging him to hobble and lean on her, but she's close enough that if he needed to, he could. And that's how Thena is.

It took him a little time to get to know her, be able to read her, but it's worked out for him. Sometimes she still stymies the others, but Gil has to admit that it makes him feel somewhat special to know that he has a way with her. And he thinks the understanding is mutual.

Thena doesn't waste words, or need them, a lot of the time. She would much rather communicate with her actions. And not just like Ajak healing them, or how he cooks meals for them all when they have the time. Thena is quieter, more subtle, but he thinks her heart is really quite sweet if she lets you see it.

"Are you well, Great One?"

Gil startles at the human woman who seems to appear out of nowhere. Is his periphery not as sharp as it needs to be? He looks down at her, and he faintly hears his shoulder plate clink against Thena's. "Uh-"

"You have fought off a monster sent from the heavens yet again."

The humans here mythologise everything, needing an explanation for the things that happen and why they do. A lot of tales have come about already, between the humans telling stories and Sprite cementing them in history with her special brand of storytelling.

Gil shrugs. He's not always the best at receiving direct praise like this--makes him nervous. "It's all of us, really."

"Indeed," the woman agrees, leaning to catch Thena's eye. "You and your allies are strong together."

She hurries along, maybe sensing there are other Eternals who will receive her praise more openly. If she talks to Kingo, he'll let her write a song about him.

"Indeed, Gilgamesh," Thena says next to him, and he can hear her grinning. She's not often in a playful mood, but fights tend to lift her spirits more than any sunny day. "Rely on your allies more."

He snorts. It's not that it's the wrong word for them or anything. They certainly are allies. But he thinks it's a little cold and distant for people who have lived together for more than a few centuries already.

"Fine," he sighs, and maybe he leans a little closer to Thena, both of them walking slowly and almost lazily. He unfolds his arms and puts one behind her shoulders. She's so strong, but Thena's actual frame is somewhat tiny next to his. "When do you think Phastos will make us start rebuilding?"

"What happened to my gate?!"

"immediately," Thena answers the question that no longer needs an answer. But he laughs, and she almost gets out a laugh over it as well. "But we'll need some energy to dispose of the bodies. He and Sersi can start construction if they need to."

He's leaning on her. He's not sure when it happened, but with his arm around her back, it's become heavy, and he's walking at an angle. He really is more tired than he thought. "Man, I could eat that thing's weight in meat tonight."

Thena obliges him, and it's kind of her, really. No one else blathers in her ear or leans on her or uses her as a crutch like this. "I'm sure the humans will prepare a feast in revelry. They always do when they've survived another attack."

Gil groans. At least he wouldn't have to do all the cooking himself.

"They will have ale," she adds more slyly. "That always seems to lift your spirits."

"You lift my spirits." He says it before he can stop himself. She doesn't want to hear it, he's pretty sure. And he sort of meant it as a joke, but it's not untrue because of that.

Thena adjusts his heavy arm over her shoulders, even unfolding one of her arms to use her hand to steady his. "Carrying your spirits, you mean."

He chortles again, because Thena's really funny, even if no one else is around the know it.

"Just a little more."

She's actually really sweet.

Gil lets out another groan at the sight of the temple stairs. He gets why they are the way they are, but they're just not what he needs to see right now. He glares as Ikaris flies on ahead of them, and even Phastos uses his gears to lift a slab to use as an easy elevator. Gil barks at them, "cheaters!"

"C'mon Gil," Kingo pats his back on the other side of him, "you can lean on me if you need!"

He'd rather let Thena drag him up the steps like a corpse. "No thanks."

Kingo lingers behind them to express his offense at that. Thena keeps her pace with him as they start their ascent. "He's going to remember that."

"He'll get over it," Gilgamesh excuses. His drama queen teammate is easy like that. He'll bring him a drink later tonight. "They'll be talking about him tonight, that'll put him in a good mood."

"Indeed," Thena agrees. "Sprite is probably already recounting things to the villagers."

Gilgamesh sighs. Sometimes Sprite embellishes things a little for the fun of it. Sometimes it's little changes and sometimes she'll change the story based on her mood. "Yeah, about the tyrant king Gilgamesh and how mean he is."

Thena tries not to seem like she's laughing. But it's hard, because even a little giggle from her is so rare it's actually kind of adorable. "Is she still-"

"Mad I 'stole' her drink from her at the last party?--yeah," Gilgamesh sighs at the thought. He hadn't meant to. It seemed to be just a drink sitting for the taking. But Sprite gets riled up when she's treated like someone young, and being deprived of a stiff drink is high on her list of personal slights.

She also gets cranky when Ikaris ignores her all day.

Thena comforts him by patting his loose hanging hand. "No one believes you are a terrifying and cruel king, Gilgamesh."

He purses his lips (a habit picked up from the woman next to him). "I don't know, some of the folks here seem pretty afraid of me."

"Then they simply do not know you."

He looks at her, and they're in rather close quarters when he does. He gets to see how green her eyes are like this, and the paleness of her skin and the sandy colour of her eyelashes and the life in her cheeks and the pink of her lips and how her hair rustles around her tiara.

"Gilgamesh?"

She just blinks at him. She doesn't move back, she doesn't flinch, she doesn't even throw his arm off of her and make him walk the rest of the way by himself.

He smiles, because even if Sprite tells stories about how mean he is, he's still pretty lucky as far as Eternals go. "You'll be there, right?"

She pauses.

"Tonight?" he asks directly, and the way her eyes slide away tells him that she hadn't intended on it. Thena seldom does join them for gatherings though, especially those involving mingling with humans. "Please?"

She seems startled by how directly he asks her. And he honestly expects her to still say no when asked. But she almost flounders, just for a split second, like she doesn't know what to do now that he's asked her so personally.

And to his surprise, she nods. She goes back to looking ahead of them, and he does the same. But he wonders if that's all he has to do. He asked and now Thena will be there tonight. He can spend more time with her instead of sitting, getting drunk with Kingo and Sprite and wondering what she's up to.

Thena stumbles a little as he leans even heavier on her. "Gilgamesh."

But he's so happy he feels a little drunk already. He pulls her closer with his arm around her so he can say directly into that incredible hair of hers, "I'm glad you'll be there."

He was weighed down, Thena half thrown over him, sleeping so deeply her mouth was hanging open a little. It was honestly a little cute. Her hair looked wild, but then his mind flashed to the way he had laid over her, skin to skin, hips pounding...

Fuck, it was so good, too.

Gil sighed. No matter how good it was, it was a lapse in judgement. He had always told himself he wouldn't give into this. It wasn't fair to Thena, it was taking advantage of his position of power, any number of reasons.

But then she had cocked her hip, and she had been a little bit of a stubborn brat, and she kept eyeing him like she wanted him to grab her and kiss her.

Fuck.

He groaned faintly, but Thena groaned in response. She pressed her face into his chest, her hand on his other pec balled up into a fist. Her other hand...well, her other hand moved from somewhere around his thigh up to her face.

"What...?"

He squeezed his eyes shut. What was he supposed to say? They both knocked right out after finishing last night. He shouldn't have stayed. Or he should have taken her back to her room.

"Gil?"

He inhaled, getting his elbows up so he could see her better. He did his best to prepare himself mentally for those wide green eyes. Would they be teary, angry, resentful? Would she consider this a huge breach of the trust they had fought to establish, slowly and surely?

He was a mob boss and a murderer, but he wasn't a monster, and he considered himself to be a pretty good lover. How had he gone from just barely kissing his wife to having a rough fuck on a weeknight without so much as a proper date in between?

God she was beautiful.

"Hey," he sighed. Before he could even stop himself his hand reached up, pushing some of her hair out of her face and behind her ear. This was not helping.

But Thena didn't burst into tears or demand to know what happened. She took in her surroundings, looked at him. She picked herself and the sheet up, preserving some modesty in the light of day. "Bloody hell."

Gil tried not to chuckle; her little 'Londonisms' as he called them, could come out when she let her guard down.

She rubbed her face a little, flipped her mussed - extra fluffy - blonde locks out of her face and over her shoulder again. She eyed him, "morning."

"Are you okay?" Gil asked outright. No use dancing around it now that they were up, and naked.

"Are you?" she asked, and his surprise was obvious enough that she picked up on it right away. "Are you worried you've sullied my innocence?"

He made a face. That was his wife that he knew. "You were surprisingly bratty."

Got her back; Thena seemed flustered for maybe a fraction of a second before recovering. "You're usually a very good listener, but last night I couldn't get through to you. I thought it required a more forceful approach."

He raised his brow at that, but he could accept it. He had kind of liked her stubbornness rising up to challenge his. Added to how hot things were.

Thena inhaled and then sighed, "don't you have work?"

He let out a loud groan, which made her laugh. "They can call me if they need me."

"That doesn't sound very boss-ly, Gilgamesh," Thena grinned, and he could hear it in her words. She leaned over him, putting her hand on his chest. "At least make a lady breakfast."

Flirting aside, he looked at her again. His beautiful wife, like a dear wandered into a dangerous part of the woods. He brought her hand to his lips. "I should be doing a lot more than that."

Thena leaned in to kiss him properly, no hand needed. The hand in question moved to cup the side of his neck. He tried not to flinch (he had a cut there that he hadn't told her about from a few weeks ago). "Don't go soft on me, Gilgamesh. You still need to be the big, scary mob boss your minions need you to be."

He smiled, and not even a smirk or a grin, just a genuine smile at the woman in his arms. "You're a good kisser."

"Speak for yourself," she smiled right into another kiss. "Kissed the hell out of me last night."

Did a lot, last night.

Gil ran his hands up her back, although he managed some of his usual restraint when he grasped the sheet around her. "We gotta find you some clothes, before I lose all ability to cook something."

He could feel Thena looking at him from the bed as he got up to do the same for himself. He didn't bother covering what she had already seen. Maybe he did take a quick peek to see if she was looking, but she seemed busy arranging her sheet around her as he walked into his closet.

"Shirt."

He snorted to himself as he found some sweatpants for himself. He liked her demanding side. "Of course, dear."

She accepted it as he tossed it at her. If anything, she held it up, examined the front and back. "I didn't pick this for you."

He tugged at the t-shirt he threw on, "it's old."

She looked at him from around the shirt. "I don't think it's the right cut for you. The sleeves look too long."

What would he do without her? He chuckled, coming over to the bed again. His palms gripped the edge of the mattress as he kissed her again. "You can take me shopping again."

Thena muttered to herself as she pulled it on, something about the fabric and the buttons and how the collar was too high. But no matter what she had to say about it, once she stood with it falling around her thighs, god it looked a million times better.

So much so that when Gil let her go ahead of him to the kitchen he couldn't take his eyes off her.

Thena went right to the coffee machine. She seemed awfully collected, and Gil felt a twinge of fear that last night hadn't been nearly as good for her as it had been for him. "Cup?"

He nodded, "uh, please."

He moved to the stove. He could get called into work. It had been a long time since he last showed up late anyway. But he pulled out eggs, bread, tomatoes, enough for a full feast. He needed the fuel.

Thena blew on her coffee and took a delicate sip. She seemed so...unfazed.

Gil turned on the burner, shifting between watching Thena and cooking. "I'm starving."

"Hm."

His coy little princess. He reached for the coffee she made for him. "You hungry?"

"Quite."

Gil cracked the eggs with one hand, almost completely filling the pan with the exception of enough room for some thick bacon. He needed the protein. Thena was perched on a stool across from him, looking down into her coffee cup like it had the same contents as her phone.

His shirt was hanging off her loosely, exposing her clavicle, a good amount of cleavage for his viewing pleasure. Didn't she know he was exercising restraint to not kiss her and throw her onto the table right now?

"Are you good?"

Thena looked up, and it made him realise he was the one who asked it in the first place. But he put his hands on the counter while the eggs started sizzling. "Are you?"

He might as well go for broke, bet it all. "I'm fuckin' fantastic, sweetie, and I wanna know if you are. Because last night is the best fuck I've had in ages but I have to know if it was good for you. Because if it wasn't, I need to - I don't know - join a fucking monastery or-"

Thena set her mug down on the counter. She gave him a look that he wouldn't say was amused, by any means. It looked a little like the way she had looked last night.

Gil tried not to grit his teeth as she slipped off her stool to walk around the kitchen island. It was too tall and too wide for her to just reach across it, after all. But he sagged faintly as she sidled right up to him, all sexy in his shirt, messy blonde hair. And he leaned in as she looped her arms around the back of his neck to kiss him again.

She pressed her nose into his black t-shirt. "Last night was amazing, Gil, thank you. It was probably the best night I've had."

Well, he would try not to let that get to his head.

Thena tilted her head at him, arms still wrapped around his neck. "I don't really know where this leaves us. But I've no regrets about last night, if that's your concern."

Well, that was the answer he was looking for. Of course last night hadn't made his wife the kind of coy creature to beat around the bush.

"Perhaps it'll even happen again."

His brows rose again, and he vaguely thought that the eggs would get more done than Thena usually liked. But he looked at her, unwilling to leave that proposal hanging between them.

Thena toyed with his shirt in the center of his chest. "If you need to...blow off some steam, again."